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3232Path of Exile 3.5 Betrayal Best Buildshttps://www.requnix.com/path-of-exile-3-5-betrayal-best-builds
https://www.requnix.com/path-of-exile-3-5-betrayal-best-builds#commentsFri, 28 Dec 2018 00:38:28 +0000http://www.requnix.com/?p=4457Betrayal is one of the largest sub-expansions to be released for Path of Exile in recent time. It contains a complete Master/Crafting revamp, new skills, and re-introduces Incursions and Bestiary while also including Delve into the core game. It also introduces the new Syndicate mechanic system. As such, there are now numerous (and dangerous) leveling and end-game systems a player needs to plan their builds to handle.

Introduction

Betrayal will be know as the “Arc Mine” league because more than 20% of all build are Arc based, and the majority of those builds are Mines. Not because Arc received a buff or change from 3.5 but because it didn’t receive a nerf, and is capable of handling all of the new content. However, the new Winter Orb and Brand (Storm and Armageddon) skills are some of the strongest and most enjoyable as well, bringing new play styles to the game.

Playing Betrayal since launch, I have taken the following builds to end-game: Storm Brand, Armageddon Brand, Winter Orb, Molten Strike, Holy Relic, Arc Mines, Vortex (CI) and Tectonic Slam. This includes variations of the new skills (two of Winter Orb and three of Storm Brand).

It’s also important to acknowledge the complete crafting and master overhaul in 3.5. It’s fantastic, and allows players to craft even more powerful rare and never seen before combinations that greatly empower a wide variety of builds. This is a factor in this league’s dominating builds because the multi-crafting ability for the new crafting augments make both new and last league’s builds even stronger.

Relative to this overview, I also want to acknowledge how important play style is. Some people hate totems while others only play totem builds. Some like Melee while others love bow builds. The diversity of PoE is one of its greatest features, but also one of the most complex aspects of the game. While a build may be listed as “best” some players may disagree because of the style(s) they prefer – but one thing is assured – the builds listed herein are all rock solid and viable for their represented roles. There are other more powerful builds that are more complex (and sometimes powerful), but they generally require respecing, farming specific items/uniques/item rolls, and other factors — but the reality is most of these builds don’t provide enough of an advantage to the core requirements to outperform the below recommendations.

The below list was created based on a combination of my personal experience with the builds, the experience and recommendations of my friends and colleagues in PoE, comments and feedback from players in Reddit and the PoE forums, builds run by active PoE streamers taken to end-game, and cross-comparing to the top 100 leaderboard builds.

Before we begin, Path of Building is a very important tool to have when following a build guide since many of them share PoB links. Additionally, make sure you have a good loot filter. I personally recommend NeverSink’s Loot Filter.

Getting to maps and farming while surviving and having the ability to do all end-game content are key requirements for each of the recommended builds. This guide does not include ultra expensive builds for players who have accumulated a large amount of currency. This guide is perfect for new players, late league starters, or those who just want to try another build that will work for end-game and is fun.

The Leaderboard and Top Builds

Before I present the list, I want to say something very important: just because it’s on the top 100 list doesn’t mean it’s a “best build”. Many (if not most) of the top players run builds that are designed solely to push 100 and nothing more (farming specific maps); however many of these builds are capable of doing all content (Shaper & Uber Elder), and delving deep. People on the top 100 list are hardcore (play style not HC mode), experienced, and pushing 100 (while also delving) is an art all of its own that generally has no application to the average player – but we can still learn from these builds. I also want to elaborate on how I interpreted the top build from the leaderboards. These characters can be found on poe.ninja builds. There are three core categories to consider: Softcore, Hardcore and SSF (and variations of each). Keep in mind those who are 95+ and do not play SSF often group with others (including aura bots), which includes sharing items and maps. This augmentation can misrepresent the viability of an end-game build and its capability to run without a party and reach 100 as quickly as it has. This means SSF is the best indicator of a build’s capability to progress without aura bots and party support. SSF players that push 95+ are a special breed of dedicated folks who usually put 8-12+ hours of game time in each day. These are not average players; but average players can learn from them.

Below are the statistics pulled from the poe.ninja builds top characters in each league subsection. Note many profiles are set to private, so this data is only based on public profiles that have their skills shared with the community. The below list is in order of popularity and use.

What can we learn from this? Arc is the most popular skill across the league and Elementalist is the most popular ascendancy (overall). Now that we are in a league that isn’t focused solely on delving deep (and the best money is currently made by delving at shallow levels), diversity in build capability is now more important due to the combined Syndicate, Delve, Incursion and Bestiary content.

Unfortunately, the new skills Shattering Steel, Lancing Steel and the war banners are seeing very little use.

As mentioned above, Betrayal will be known as the league of Arc Mines and traps.

My Favorite Builds from 3.5 Betrayal

Before I dive into the recommended build list, I wanted to share my favorite builds from the 3.5 Betrayal league so far.

Winter Orb Elementalist is my second favorite build, not only because it’s also a new skill, but because it’s fantastic for speed mapping and clear. The freezing/cold also help greatly with survival, slowing bosses, and completely immobilizing trash and even rares. It’s a lot of fun to watch the screen shatter in unison.

I also really enjoyed the Occultist CI Vortex build. It may not have the clear speed of the other builds, but the focused cold DoT damage paired with the survivability make it great for handling all content. You basically phase run through groups, dropping a Vortex as you move through them, which will instantly melt the group. The cold damage also slows and freezes many bosses, and CI is the best for survival in this league.

I also tried a Trickster DoT Armageddon Brand build, and it was a blast. I got to end-game with no deaths because it uses Patient Reaper, which recovers both life and mana on kill. It’s a lot of fun and does a great job of melting mobs, however to get great melting damage on end-game bosses, a substantial investment is required. While it doesn’t have the “speed” of Storm Brand (due to the delay between cast and hit), it’s just a lot of fun to play and I highly recommend it.

And finally, we have my favorite from last league, the Holy Relic Guardian. I used it as my league starter for Betrayal and it performed fantastically, even with the shift of “all damage” to “physical damage” for Herald of Agony and Herald of Purity. It uses Cyclone with Life Gain on Hit for movement, Herald of Agony for bosses/tough targets (with Phantasms for distraction), Herald of Purity and Holy Relics for additional damage. This is one of the best builds I’ve played, and a great league starter. It’s fully end-game viable, can do all content, is SSF friendly, and fun to play. I killed Minotaur in under 15 seconds with this build and took it below delve 300 (others have taken it 600+) without issue last league.

The Best 3.5 Betrayal Builds List

As mentioned, the below list is based upon the Statistics pulled from poe.ninja; not just normal play, but hardcore as well (which indicates fantastic survival). I will include links to the best build guides, many of which I have used myself.

Arc Mines (Normal #1, HC #1, SSF #1, HC SSF #1) is the top build this league because of its ability to dominate all content, clear maps quickly and melt bosses with the Spire trap. The only downside is the “style” of play can be clunky for many, requiring the player to drop a mine and detonate it manually. Second to Arc Mines (39%) is Arc Traps (34%), nearly as potent as mines, it can clear with the best and is fantastic in bossing. The third most common Arc build is Arc Totems (20%); while it’s not nearly as potent for completing all game content, it’s a more laid back play style that doesn’t require constant detonation.

Winter Orb (Normal #2, HC #2, SSF #2, HC SSF #2) is taking over as the second most used skill in the game across normal, SSF and hardcore. The main reason is the clear speed, chilling slow, and the ability to pump out some crazy damage with the right items. It’s also a new style of gameplay.

Storm Brand (Normal #7, HC #5, SSF #3, HC SSF #2), is another new skill that is a ton of fun to play and probably the new best leveling skill in the game; it is also great for end-game farming and bossing and allows the player to survive most encounters by constantly staying mobile.

CoC Cyclone (Normal #8, HC #6, SSF #7, HC SSF #7) Assassin is now shining with the new cold adjustments, allowing for slow/freezing Cast on Crit. There is also an Ascendant version, but it’s not as popular.

Molten Strike (Normal #5, HC #7, SSF #12, HC SSF N/A) still holds its place in the top builds list with the most popular variation being that of the Juggernaut. The two most popular versions are the Grelwood Shank and Shield, and the Dual Nebuloch.

Fallout 76 is the next iteration of the Fallout universe, this time focusing on online play with other players.

Fallout 76 Review Introduction

The Fallout Franchise is one of the most beloved gaming worlds in the industry. With a long-standing history starting with Fallout 1 released by Interplay in 1997, and evolving into the masterpiece that was Fallout 4 and the evolving DLC. Fallout is one of my personal favorite series of all time. I thought Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4 were amazing, and when Fallout 76 was announced, I marked my calendar.

That pretty much sums it up…

I want to preface this review by stating I have done pretty much all “leveling” and end-game content, including launching a nuke and getting to level 167 (at the time of writing this review). I am going to cover all aspects of the game in my review below, but because of what’s going on with FO76 right now, I want to talk about the elephant in the room.

Most people who are reading Fallout 76 reviews know what a complete mess the current state of the game is; much of the reviewer-given hate is warranted, and some of it is not. In many of the videos (and screenshots) it’s easy to see many of the reviewers really didn’t get beyond mid-game, and probably don’t even know what primals are or the importance of securing workbenches and building extractors. However, it is fair to say Fallout 76 is a royal mess, and the team at Bethesda released an unstable and buggy game that has so much potential. To be clear, saying “Fallout 76 will be good one day” does not excuse it from not being good at launch.

December 5th upate: After the December 4th patch, the game is even more of a mess than it was prior to the patch. Bethesda also made numerous “balance” changes they failed to include in the patch notes, and the game doesn’t play better than before the patch; it plays worse. Reddit is now full of players who were previously “hopeful” stating they have lost all faith in Bethesda, and are tired of dealing not only with a very broken game, but an incompetent company that can’t fix even the most basic of bugs while refusing to post “complete” patch notes. FO76 is truly in a sad state; the game now crashes for me regularly (it didn’t do that before the patch), desync and invisible monsters are out of control, and loading times are still “a special kind of stupid”, often lasting 2 minutes or longer. I’m lowering the technical score of FO76 to a 0 for now until these issues are addressed.

A Youtuber named Dreamcast shared some information about why the game is in the state it currently is. You can watch the video here. Apparently FO76 team members said: 1) There were no sales goals; 2) It didn’t matter how the game played; 3) The dev team never heard any feedback from the “player base”, and; 4) Todd Howard wasn’t even involved (this included him not even being in the game credits at launch). The main priority was to just get the product out the door by a specific date, regardless of quality. I have to say, this information does support the current state of the game.

Here’s another perspective of what people “don’t understand’ about Fallout 76. I agree FO76 is a type of “experiment”, and this individual does a good job of covering the difficulties in creating an online game and converting a single-player “universe” to a multi-player experience. I agree, this is Fallout 4 Online, not Fallout 5 single-player. But what I disagree with here is he doesn’t touch on the numerous technical and design problems that could have easily been addressed before release, and made the game so much better.

We also have theMetacritic user reviews, which currently shows a 2.8/10 score based on more than 4,100 reviews. This is a big problem, and rightly so. The majority of the bad reviews cite bugs as the #1 issue with the game. And they are correct.

Rhykker also posted a good video that covers most of the current FO76 issues. It’s probably the best “quick update” on the situation not only as to the state of the game, but how Bethesda has mishandled numerous problems.

But this is no surprise; the BETA process for FO76 was a complete farce. Sporadic 4-8 hour windows of “testing” just a few weeks before release? And to add insult to injury, the biggest problems (including the red flag issue of stash space) were completely ignored by Bethesda. The game released “as-is” even though the player base (we’re talking tens of thousands of people or more) warned Bethesda about the game’s key problems (many of which could and should have been fixed prior to launch). And it gets even better. The day before Thanksgiving (a 4-day holiday for most in the US), Bethesda decided to execute some sort of server patch (with no notes as to what they did) which actually broke the game even further for numerous players (including me). All in time for people who wanted to play over the long weekend to experience even worse issues than the game had at launch – while the Dev team was off eating turkey and pie. And then one week after launch, the game was available for 50% off. Talk about a nice “fuck you” to the player base. This was reaffirmed further by Bethesda shipping a low quality nylon bag as part of the $200 collectors edition, something that was not in the original marketing materials – and to make matters worse, a Bethesda rep said “we aren’t planning on doing anything about it”. But then they changed their mind and decided to award 500 Atoms ($5) to the $200 collectors edition supporters. This issue has even been taken up by a law firm who is looking into a Class Action Lawsuit. You can’t make this stuff up. Regardless, this sort of blatant mismanagement and stupidity is no joke; Bethesda has some serious problems and they not only let down the Fallout community at launch, they are failing to promptly hotfix and address key problems in the game. Respected game companies would have been burning the midnight oil, executing hot fixes, and been smart enough not to release such a buggy product right before the holiday; oh and they would have provided items in a $200 collectors edition that were actually advertised.

Bethesda did announce they are patching the game on December 4th (stash limit increase to 600lbs and big fixes) and again on December 11th (SPECIAL respec, FOV, Push to talk and CAMP placement issue fixes). This is a good start, but may be “too little, too late” for many players. After all, these things should have been resolved during BETA. And there have been no hotfixes issued to correct blatant cheating, which is directly impacting the economy. Even now, it looks as if Bethesda doesn’t have a clue as to what they are doing or how to properly handle this mess.

Regardless, I feel many reviewers are failing to cover the vision and potential of FO76 and how the game may be in the near future once the key bugs and issues are addressed.

It’s not all doom and gloom. I want to give readers a sliver of hope, and that is a reference to No Man’s Sky. Many people know what a complete and utter disaster that game was at launch. The company almost went under, and the gaming community was venomous against Hello Games. Well, guess what. NMS is now a great game. The company worked their asses off over the past two years and turned the concept and design (the “vision”) into something players are now embracing. This video is a great example of how a terrible game at release can evolve into what it was meant to be with time.

I believe FO76 has great potential, and that’s why players are so angry and upset. They expected this fantastic huge world to be far more stable, immersive and enjoyable. However, that’s not what was provided at launch – but I believe the foundation is there for the game to become what it was meant to be in the future. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t forgive Bethesda for this preventable tragedy. Hello Games was a small indie company publishing their first “Major” game while Bethesda is a multi-billion dollar powerhouse that has made numerous AAA titles. As such Bethesda should be held to a higher standard.

Let’s dive into what this game really is, which is much more than most reviewers are touching on. First, a few details:

Fallout 76 is all about farming, leveling, scavenging, collecting gear and surviving. It’s a jack of all trades, yet master of none. Playing FO76 has been one of the most frustrating gaming experience I’ve ever had. That’s a bad thing. But I am writing this review because I believe there is a lot of potential for FO76 and more to the core game than people realize. That’s a good thing. But much of what it “could” be has been shrouded in a broken launch paired with an incomplete product. No real polish was given to this game at launch, but could there be a gem underneath? Let’s find out…

Let’s do this!

Content

The reality is FO76 is a single-character game. While you can create multiple characters (5 total), there isn’t any sharing between them at all. This means each character you create starts out from scratch with no benefit from previous play. The problem with this design is if you’re on your level 160 rifleman and the ultimate melee weapon drops, you have no way to get that to a new character without using a 3rd party or 2nd (mule) account. I hope Bethesda fixes this and at least adds a shared stash and the sharing of blueprints (which can often take the longest to acquire). The good news is there is so much content and so much to do, many players are perfectly fine with a single character or starting from scratch. It’s just unfortunate there is no enticement to try different builds and re-experience the game world using rewards you’ve acquired through playing. FO76 would be so much cooler if there was reward and benefit to building different characters to grow the overall “account”.

Fallout 76 is actually a difficult game. You will die. A lot. Starting out is quite rough, especially when you have no real armor and wander into an area with higher level monsters. But once you get a full set of armor (or Power Armor), your survival jumps way up. Then comes the process of repairing weapons and armor, managing food, drink, materials, weight and how to progress your character. New players need to be patient; the game has a tough learning curve, but once you hit mid-game and you’re annihilating your enemies with gory glee, the tough start fades away.

Character Creation is nearly identical to Fallout 4. One can select sex, and then craft the face to look normal, or crazy. It’s fun to sculpt your character, and I’ve seen some hideously wonky folks running around.

The World of FO76 is larger than Fallout 4 and Skyrim combined; it’s massive, detailed, beautiful, and I think is one key areas where the game really shines. It is a vibrant living world full of activity, danger and the unknown. Appalachia is a very nice change from the drab and faded colorless world of Fallout 4. A lot of love and refinement went into the game world and it entices players to explore and enjoy the environment of Appalachia. Towns, Outposts, Forests, Swamps, Mountains, Caves, Mines, Bunkers, Nuclear Power Plants, and so many other locations await exploration. Unfortunately, one of the most broken aspects of the game at this time is that of world hopping and load times. At launch, I could often get into the world after just 10 seconds. Now, it often takes up to 2 minutes (or longer), and I often have to “end task” the client, because it just ends in a never-ending load process. There are some serious issues here that never should have made it out the door.

Encountering other Players in the game is enjoyable; most everyone I meet is usually friendly and wants to team up and work together. Rarely have I encountered anyone who is straight out hostile. This emphasizes the concept of taking a Fallout game online to play with others as a good design idea. I also love how you can hear the sounds of battle (gunshots, explosions, etc.) off in the distance – and it’s from a real fight (often another character shooting it out). This entices players to “investigate” the combat they see/hear in distance, which often results in fighting by the side of a new friend to help them kill numerous enemies. This aspect of the game does bring people together, and it’s another area where the game shines. There are no other Humans in the world of Fallout 76 except for other players, and there can only be up to 24 players in each world world. This is a good number because it makes running into other people a rare and interesting event. However, it’s unfortunate there really is no central trading hub or city for players to hang out at together. Bethesda should have added one that supported free travel. I also discuss the lack of text messaging/speaking and the “push to talk” feature below, forcing players to either always play with their microphone on/off or use emotes to communicate. The FO76 “communication system” simply does not work, and is one of the dumbest (and broken) design concepts I’ve ever seen.

Many people have complained that FO76 doesn’t really have a Storyline. This isn’t true at all; while there is a main story following the Overseer of Vault 76 that drives the player through to the end-game (resulting in launching a nuke), the game instead focuses on numerous Stories spread throughout the world. There are a lot of them and they are very enjoyable. Just wait until you do the DMV quest. As to how many side stories the game has, I have no idea, but the world is so big and there is so much to explore, even at level 167, I’m constantly encountering new stories and quests to complete. People seem upset there aren’t other human NPCs in the world providing these quests; honestly, that doesn’t matter. The content is good, entertaining, sad, crazy, and weird. It’s exactly what I would expect (and want) from a post-apocalyptic world. There are four different types of Quests in the game: Main, Side, Daily and Event. Main quests are designed to move the player through a number of core storylines while Side quests are “if you’re interested, go for it”. Daily quests can be completed once a day (and take place at static locations) and Events are pretty much random and spread throughout the world (and show on the world map). One nice thing is a player can fast travel (by paying Caps) to any Event on the map. This is a very useful way to get distant waypoints as long as the character can afford it. While a player makes more XP farming monsters, many Quests and Events reward items and blueprints, so they are worth completing. For example, the only way to get a Fusion Generator Blueprint is to complete one of the two Nuclear Power Plant events.

Before I dive into the core mechanics, I want to talk about Builds. The game is so diverse, a player can pursue any type of build they want based on the play style they prefer. Want to be a sniper that executes 1-hit headshots? Want to be a carrion eating irradiated boxer? Check. Perhaps a hybrid shotgunner/melee (with bladed weapons)? How about a demolition expert that uses exploding weapons and lobs a ton of grenades? We got that. Want to be a support-based energy weapons power armor tank designed to help teammates? You can do all of this and more, which is very cool. Melee is currently the strongest damage build in the game, able to 1-shot scorchbeasts and other end-game bosses, but it can also be quite squishy and can’t touch flying enemies until they land. But don’t underestimate ranged builds; my hybrid Shotgun/Rifle build can kill a landed scorchbeast in less than 5 seconds, and also pick them off in the air with its Gauss Rifle. Heavy Gunner builds are also very popular, but the reality is so many different build variations just “work” based on the right combination of Perk Carks, Mutations, and Legendary Weapons (all covered below) that there is ultimately no “best build” because different people like to play and fight in different ways. The combinations are really endless. You can find a bunch of builds (applied and concept) on the Fallout 76 Builds Subreddit.

There is no Level cap in FO76, but a character only receives points to distribute into their stats for the first 50 levels. After that, each level allows the player to select a new Perk card. This means a player has to be careful as to how they build out their stats (covered below) since there is currently no respec, but the option to respec is going to be added on December 11. The cool thing about not having a level cap is you can keep playing and playing and level up (and get points to spend on perk cards). If you see a level 180 player, you know they’ve played a LOT vs. a level 50 player. It’s also nice to know there’s no ceiling to hit; if you invest years into this game, it will show on your level. A year from now, I won’t be surprised to see level 500+ characters.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. is the root of a character’s statistics, and are: Strength, Personality, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. Players are allowed a total of 50 points to distribute into their stats (as they level), but cannot put more than 15 in any given stat. There are inherit bonuses from each stat (for example, each point of strength provides additional carry weight and impacts melee damage). The way a character’s SPECIAL is built out allows a player to focus on a specific build, not only due to the stat values, but the cards that can be loaded into those values.

Perk Cards define the specific areas of focus for a character, and there are a lot to choose from; 191 in total. We have 24 Strength, 23 Perception, 32 Endurance, 28 Charisma, 27 Intelligence, 27 Agility and 30 Luck cards; and nearly all of them can be “combined” to a value of 3 (on average). This means there are more than 500 total card combinations for the player to pursue, one reason there is no level cap. A characters gets a new Perk Card pack every 5 levels; note these card packs are the same for every character. Bethesda changed this new Perk system from Fallout 4 to be more flexible, and to allow players to “swap” cards as they see fit. I really like this new Perk card design and think it’s one of the best features of the game; it allows a player to switch (for example) from Shotguns to Energy Weapons (if they have the SPECIAL points to support it). It also allows a player to swap cards out for specific circumstances, such as picking locks, crafting items, or engaging in PvP. You can see the complete list of Perk cards here.

I’ve put together a quick snapshot of some of the most popular Perk cards I swap for crafting and building (and killing glowing mobs in nuke zones):

Home Defense (A) – High level Turrets

Power Patcher (I) – Lower Power Armor Repairs

Weapon Artisan (I) – Repair weapons at 200%

Super Duper (L) – Chance to craft 2x of an item – Always use when crafting!

Glow Sight (P) – Deal more damage to Glowing – great for nuke zones!

Fix it good (I) – Repair Power Armor at 200%

Hard Bargain (C) – Better buy/sell prices (for vendors)

Travel Agent (C) – Lower travel costs

Ammosmith (A) – Produce more ammo when you craft!

Starting out with style!

The core Items in the game are Weapons, Armor, Apparel, Aid, Junk, Mods and Ammunition. FO76 is very similar to Fallout 4 in this regard; it’s essentially the same system with the same types of items – but now you can wear an costume/outfit over your armor (as long as you’re not in Power Armor). There are also a lot more Aid-related items (food, water, drugs, etc.) and mods allow the player to customize their gear. It’s important to mention the static/spawn Items spread throughout the world (such as duct tape, canisters, clipboards and other junk farmed items) are on a timer, even if you server hop. For example, if you come across a reactor with a fusion core in it, you can only grab that item every 12-24 hours. There are other spawns for junk, aid, weapons and other things that seem to be on a different type of timer – it’s hard to tell exactly when things refresh and respawn because as you server hop you don’t know if another person has looted everything, or if it’s a static respawn that carries a time restraint regardless of server hopping.

The Weapons and Armor in FO76 are very similar to FO4. Weapons types include Pistols, Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns, Pipe Weapons, Heavy, Energy, Plasma, Explosives, Melee (Blades, Blunt, Unarmed) that cause Ballistic, Energy, Explosive, Poison, or Radiation damage. Armor can be Power (covered below), metal, leather, combat, and other variations, and protects from Physical, Energy, and Radiation. There are also Grenades (Frag, Plasma, etc.). Weapons and Armor can be adjusted based on the Modifiers that have been unlocked through scrapping. You can make guns shoot faster, penetrate armor, hit harder, aim better, and more. Armor doesn’t have as many modifiers, but can be adjusted to absorb more damage and increase carry weight. It’s important to mention Modifiers are different from Mods. Mods are upgrade items that can be added to an item, even if it’s been modified. Mods can be found in the world and also purchased from vendors. Mods cannot be crafted. Bethesda also made a mistake by failing to tell the player what a mod does prior to purchase. At this time, the only way to see what a mod does is to have it active in your inventory, so you can’t mouse over it from a vendor to see what effect it as. This ridiculous oversight is quite problematic for new and even experienced players.

Legendary Items and Unique Items (especially weapons) are the most sought-after items in the game, and part of the end-game focus. Legendary and Unique items can have up to 5 properties (but at this time, only 3 are attainable). At first, it’s not apparent because the general UI only shows one; in order to see the additional modifiers, you have to Inspect the item. But you can tell if an item has more than one modifier by how many “bullets” it has (which can be seen to the right of the item level). The more stars a legendary creature has, the higher chance a legendary item with that many stars will drop. So if you see a 3-star legendary creature, there’s a good chance it’ll drop an item with 3 properties. I think Legendary items should be harder to find, but have better stats. Right now the rolls are so random and obscure a good 95% of legendary drops are useless.

Power Armor is a key part of the game, and nearly all builds utilize it (or require it for surviving). While there are some builds that do not use power armor, the majority do. And the end-game power armor is very impressive looking (and functions very well). Bethesda did a good job with this system, even if it’s really a copy from FO4. All power armor requires a Chassis, and with the Chassis you can mix and match any individual pieces you want (arms, legs, helm, torso). Until a character acquires the full set of end-game Power Armor, they often have different pieces from different tiers, which can look rather silly. There are six tiers of Power Armor: 1) Raider at Level 15, 2) Excavator at level 25, 3) T-45 at Level 25, T-51 at Level 30, T-60 at Level 40 and X01 at level 50 (but you can craft L40 X01 if you want). There is also Ultracite at level 50 as well, but most people opt for X01 because the only way to get mods for Ultracite is through Scorchbeast Queen drops. X01 looks awesome, and while there are a few nice skins available for purchase from the Atom Store (covered below), the choices are rather limited. This means everyone in X01 looks pretty much the same. Why Bethesda launched without more Power Armor MTX (microtransactions) is beyond me – so many people would gladly pay real money to get a power armor suit that looks different from anyone else. Let’s just hope they expand the visual aspect of power armor as time goes by. Note when you wear Power Armor, any protection or benefits from the personal armor you’re wearing are negated, so those who only wear Power Armor generally wear no personal armor underneath (since it only takes up weight).

All equipable items (Weapons and Armor) have a Level Requirement, which also defines the power or protection of the item. At this time, the highest level items in the game are 50. Equipable items also have Durability; this is how long the item lasts before it breaks and must be repaired. Item Repair is a very big part of FO76, and a key consumer of scrapped junk. Early game it’s very easy to have your weapon or armor break and not have the materials to properly repair it. This system balances out a bit later; at end game (L80+) I almost never ran out of materials to repair my weapons or armor, and if I had to farm something before my weapon broke (like springs), it was very easy to do. There are also perk cards that help your weapons and armor last longer (cutting down on the time and cost of regular repairs). I do think weapons and armor break far too quickly in early and mid-game (mainly because most of the weapons and armor pieces you find have very little durability), and most players are forced to equip the necessary perk cards to extend durability (or repair on hit). Bethesda needs to adjust this system to make weapon and armor durability management less tedious for new players.

Crafting is a key mechanic of the game, required for making pretty much everything. Players can learn how to craft food, medicine, weapons, ammo, armor, CAMP and Workbench support structures (walls, traps, extractors, machine guns, etc). Items are crafted one of three ways. The first is at Workbenches, specific to the type of item a player is looking to craft, such as weapons or ammunition. The second is CAMP structure building (which I cover below), and the third is the Workshop structure buildings (which I also cover below). Scrapping is the fuel for crafting, and nearly all items in the game can be scrapped, but not ammo or legendary items. When it comes to Weapons and Armor, Scrapping is the method by which modifications are learned. As a player grows in the world of Appalachia and takes the weapon and armor pieces to workbenches and dismantles them, the character learns how to make those mods themselves for their own item. I actually like the crafting and scrapping aspect of the game. Love .44 pistols? Collect and scrap them to learn to build mods to improve damage and accuracy. This is much better than the RNG crafting that so many other games have. Actual CAMP or Workshop items (such as walls, floors, turrets or extractors) have no mods to learn and can only be scrapped for parts. Beyond weapons and armor, the world is packed full of critically important objects that can be collected for scrapping. Want Plastic? Visit the Watoga High School and raid the cafeteria where all the utensils are plastic. Want lead? Hit the Charleston Fire Department’s weight lifting room and scrap the weights. Adhesive? Duct tape! Springs? Clipboards and Globes! There are so many items in the game that can be searched for, and believe me, every player will go through the process of being low on or out of a specific crafting material, thus requiring them to farm for it. As such, Junk is the heart and soul of crafting, and the result of scrapping pretty much everything. The interface allows the player to switch to a “component” view, which shows the breakdown of components from the junk stack; from this interface, the player can “mark” a specific component (such as Aluminum or Springs), and when an item in the world (or inventory) meets that mark, a little magnifying glass will appear next to it. This is very useful to new players who are not familiar with exactly what components world-based items (such as a globe or a clipboard) break down into. There are, however, a few problems with the crafting system:

It’s too easy to accidentally scrap an item you want (or even a favorite item). Once it’s scrapped, there’s no way to get it back. Bethesda needs to add an “undo” option to the game as many players have accidentally scrapped their favorite legendary item because the interface is rather clunky (and can cause pauses/delays in action).

The game won’t let you craft in power armor, so you’re constantly getting out of your power armor just to use workstations; I wish they would fix this.

Bethesda added “Bulking” to junk, allowing us to (for example) bulk together Aluminum, Steel, Lead, etc. But at this time, the only two that actually save stash space are Aluminum and Lead. No other bulking saves space!

It would be nice to see how much ammunition you have as you are crafting it.

Below is a quick list of the best places I’ve found to be for farming specific types of junk:

There is a strategic standard to maximizing scrapping and junk; players will discover where the workbenches are in the world and what areas they can run (and become over-encumbered with items in) and then waddle to the closest workbench. For example, I like to set my camp up just outside of Big Bend Tunnel East, run into the tunnel, kill everything inside (and loot all drops), come out the west side, then port back to my camp and change servers, then do it all again. Within the tunnel and on both ends are numerous workbenches, so I can scrap everything I find.

Super Mutant Slaughter Incoming!

One can also find Ore Deposits in the mountains, which can be smelted at Chemistry stations, but the reality is it’s easier (and more fun) to farm enemies and their regions to acquire the resulting materials.

Blueprints can be found throughout the world, and are required to craft not only weapons and armor, but food & drink (Recipes), structures and support objects for your camp and workbench areas. The most common method of acquiring a blueprint is through events. Blueprints can also be purchased from vendors and found on bodies as well. In my opinion, Workshop events are the best way to acquire blueprints because the player can hop servers, jump from unclaimed workshop to shop, and complete the missions (note I cover Workshops in detail below, under Gameplay). High level recipes can be found in the high-level areas; for example, the Workshop event in Cranberry Bog can give a Gauss Rifle blueprint. Also, the only way to acquire the Fusion Reactor blueprint is to complete one of the two nuclear power plant events (Powering Poseidon or Thunder Mountain Power Plant). One big problem with blueprints/recipes is the game doesn’t register which ones you’ve already learned, so when you go to a vendor that sells blueprints/recipes, you can’t tell if you already have it. Once you have a blueprint/recipe, you can build as many of an item as you would like, which allows you to scrap that item (weapons/armor) and obtain the modifiers for it.

And now we have the Stash, which is the unified storage system for your character; but note it’s only for each single character, and is not shared with other characters, making the passing of items between multiple characters unnecessarily difficult (you would have to use a 3rd party, which is ridiculous). The stash is currently the center of many problems relative to playing Fallout 76. There’s simply not enough space (at 400lbs) and managing the Stash is a full-time, tedious and irritating task. Bethesda is upping the limit to 600 on December 11, but even that won’t be enough, and the lack of sharing between characters is just another issue. Even with a limit of 600, it prohibits players from collecting different legendary weapons to try different builds and making sure they have ample resources to craft/repair weapons and armor. The limit was placed to force players to constantly have to scrounge and pursue acquisition of items on an “as needed” basis, but they took the concept too far. Once you factor in CAMP resources, Workshop Resources (for building), weapon and armor repair, modification and crafting, Aid storage (stimpacks, etc), and other necessities, it’s easy to see 400lb (and even 600lbs) doesn’t work – and it’s so obvious it doesn’t work that one must ask if the QA team at Bethesda really played this game like a “normal” player at all. This was the #1 complaint by the community weeks prior to the game, and while Bethesda finally said (after launch) they will increase the limit, it took too long and it’s too little. The only good thing is all Stashes are linked, so once you capture a Workshop and place a stash, or go to a railway station and access a stash, you can grab and manage your items as you see fit. It is possible to store an unlimited number of fusion cores in the Stash with no weight; just put them in a Power Armor Chassis and put that Chassis in the stash and pull it out when you need cores. It will always only take 10 lbs.

While Fallout 4 allowed players to build “bases” throughout the world on established static locations, FO76 has a new system called a C.A.M.P., which is a dynamic and movable base that a player can use for their center of operations. The concept is solid, and I really like CAMPs when they work. A player can build out any type of “structure” they desire complete with workstations, stash, beds, posters, and other miscellaneous items, and the types of items you can craft for your CAMP are based on the blueprints you’ve found. You can also fast travel to your CAMP for free, so many players place their camps strategically to allow for less costly exploration. The system is a lot of fun, and can be seen (and even used) by others players that stumble across it in the world. It’s actually very cool to be adventuring in an area and see a player-built structure that wasn’t there before. You can also move your camp for a price, but at this time the price is incorrect; it may say (for example) 23 caps, but it could cost 75. Now for the problem. If you join a gaming world and another player who is already in the world has a CAMP in the same “area” as yours, your camp simply disappears from the world and goes into storage. You just lost your fast travel. And, even though the concept of storage is sound, in many instances, you cannot replace your prebuilt camp again due to collision and floating errors (even though the camp shows as green and placeable). Next to the stash space issue, this is probably the biggest complaint by players. Luckily, Bethesda has stated they will fix this issue with the December 11th patch, also ensuring a player can “choose” to skip a server if another player’s camp is in their area. Another factor is it is very easy for another player to blast away your camp. Granted they get flagged as Wanted (covered below), it’s far too easy for them to destroy your hard work (if they desire). This needs to be addressed as well. It would be very cool to “publicize” your camp so other people could see it and travel to it on the map.

One thing that is missing from FO76 are Companions. It would have been really nice to tame creatures or buy a pet that followed you around. I’d kill to have a giant megasloth as a pack mule pet. Let’s hope Bethesda adds companions in the near future. That’s something I’d gladly spend real money for (as long as it was cosmetic).

Just like Fallout 4, FO76 has Radio stations. This includes the traditional 50’s style music (Appalachia), Classical music, and the new Hunter/Hunted station, which registers 4 players to engage in PvP. Of course “Take me Home, Country Roads” is the most loved song (and appropriately so), however I am disappointed they removed Skeeter Davis’ “The End of the World”, which for me was the best song from FO4.

There are two Factions the player can join, the Enclave and the Brotherhood. Both are run by robots and provide access to the best power armor (and other purchasable items) in the game. They are not mutually exclusive; you can join and receive benefits from both at the same time.

Similar to FO4, there are Bobbleheads and Magazines spread throughout the world, except this time, Bobblehead buffs only last an hour. Magazines are similar. Some players utilize Bobbleheads (since you can store them and use them when ready), but I don’t really know anyone who uses magazines.

Ghoul problem SOLVED!

Gameplay

World Jumping is an important part of the game, and often necessary. It allows the player to re-run the same content (by going to the same region) again and again, but in a different state than the one they just experienced. So a player could be on Server #9281 (which is transparent), clear out the West Tek Supermutants, and then leave the world and re-enter the game, and get assigned to Server #5129, where the Supermutants were never killed and are awaiting their demise. The concept also works for general item spawns (for collectible junk, etc.). This method (and system) is great for farming, and I think is a good design. However, as I mentioned at the beginning of the review, the load times can be atrocious, sometimes taking more than 2 minutes. There is definitely something wrong with the FO76 client/server code/communication base as it relates to handling “busy” areas (Whitesprings is hands down the worst). Monsters will Respawn on their own, but it’s easier to just server hop if you want to run the same area again and again. Some players have put together a “farming loop” that doesn’t require any server hopping; instead they ensure the loop takes enough time to cause a complete respawn before they clear the loop, so they can start it over again. This is necessary when running a team since server hopping isn’t a “team friendly” activity.

Level Scaling is another big part of FO76. This can be a problem for low-level characters who are trying to play with their high level friends, but it does allow a player to revisit areas later on to experience tougher monsters and better drops. I think the system does need some tweaking, but the core mechanic is solid and works well. So a new level 8 character can venture into an area to fight level 6-10 scorched, and then come back 50 levels later (in power armor) and find level 62 scorched waiting for them. I like this, and it works.

Appalachia is a very dangerous place, and there’s always something trying to kill you. As such, the entire game revolves around Combat. Whether or not you want to bash targets in the face with your guitar sword, or snipe them with headshots from a distance, the core fighting system is solid and similar to Fallout 4, it’s just a bit buggy and clunky with the current state of the game. Once it’s refined, I think it’ll be good (for a Fallout game). In addition to direct attacks, the player can block with melee weapons, shoot cars to explode a train of enemies, or lead poor souls to higher level monsters that engage them. Be wary of high level robots though (especially Legendaries); they explode as a final act of revenge! I love how I can exit an area and walk into a full-fledged battle between Scorched and Molemen, or Supermutants and Mirelurks. This is another aspect of the game that I haven’t seen any other reviewers touch on, and it’s such an important part; it’s great. There are a few reloading issues, for example if you have 4/5 rounds in your hunting rifle and reload, it puts all 5 rounds back in instead of 1. While an issue like this is small in comparison to other issues, things like this add up and complicate combat. The Ragdoll mechanics can be fun during combat when a grenade explodes and bodies go flying, or you shoot a ghoul in the head and it tumbles out a window and splats on the pavement below. When other players are around, all you need to do is hit a monster once to get credit for the experience and ability to loot, even if somebody else kills it. Make sure you tag monsters in big groups! And note, Loot drops are specific for each character; there is no ninja looting!

I actually think the new real-time V.A.T.S. system is very well done. Using this system, I can often dispatch targets more than twice as fast as I would using free form combat. The crit aspect of VATS is also very powerful, and when properly managed, allows the quick dispatching of (for example) Scorchbeasts (I can take one down in under 5 seconds using VATS). However, one thing I don’t like is you can’t switch weapons while VATS is enabled. This causes the player to get “stuck” in dangerous combat situations. They should also make VATS responsive to player movement so it’s disabled if one spins their mouse way off target. Another issue is VATS targeting friendly targets right next to an enemy target.

Stealth is also a critical part of the game for those who want to execute sneak attacks. It’s very easy to loudly trounce through a region only to aggro 20 or more enemies that quickly run a train of death on you. As such, sneaking is often required when soloing dangerous areas, also allowing for attacks that do 2x or more damage. My personal favorite is sneak attacks with my suppressed gauss rifle. It’s delightfully enjoyable to watch the heads of your enemies explode with 1-shot kills.

Monster AI is a bit of a problem, but it’s hard to tell what is an AI issue vs. server instability (due to latency, lag, loading issues, etc.). My guess is the AI will improve with server stability, but right now, it’s mediocre at best. I’m not too concerned about the AI just now because issues like this take time to resolve; it works fine for the current state of the game, but I’m confident 6 months from now it will be much better.

If you’re going to kill Ghouls, pile them up and do it in style!

Bethesda introduced Hunger and Thirst with FO76, a system that requires the player to regularly eat and drink to maintain their AP (which impacts movement, combat, etc.). As such, it’s important to gather meat, cook it, and obtain boiled or purified water. This entices players to utilize consumables that buff them (such as specific meats that can be cooked to provide a bonus). Want some extra melee damage? Hunt down, kill, and cook a Yao Guai. Want some bonus experience? Make some cranberry juice! Overall, I like the food/drink system, however I do not like Hunger/Thirst hitting you in the middle of battle. Bethesda needs to add a system that warns you of impending hunger/thirst rather than just popping up in the middle of combat with lowered AP. They also need to add a better warning (perhaps a glowing icon) for weapons that are near their breaking point. Another issue is you can’t go AFK while playing FO76 or you’ll starve and go thirsty. While it won’t kill you, it’s frustrating to walk away from the game for 15 minutes and come back to see you’re in bad shape. The only way to avoid this is to sleep in a bed while you go AFK.

Disease is new to FO76 and is very annoying. They can be contracted through being hit by a diseased monster, the environment (swamp, etc.), consuming contaminated food or water, or resting in an unclean mattress/bed/sleeping bag. There are quite a few of them including Dysentery, Parasites, Shell Shock, Snot Ear and others which can last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. The only way to get rid of them is to use a Disease Cure or let the disease run its course. I personally think diseases were an unnecessary addition to the game. Disease cures are hard to find, and it just makes the play experience unenjoyable, because when you’re out of Disease Cure, you’re often screwed. Playing with Shell Shock for an hour is just plain stupid. Bethesda needs to either remove or refine the Disease system since there’s no challenge to it, just irritation.

Fast Travel is a key part of the game, allowing the player to instantly move from one region to another. A player can fast travel to any place they have discovered, another team member, or their camp. The only time it costs caps is when the destination is a discovered place; going to team members or the camp is free. One cannot fast travel if there are enemies nearby. This can be annoying when just a single radroach out of sight can prevent travel. This happens even if the player is Hidden.

Mutations are a new type of character buff and debuff combination that are acquired randomly through radiation damage, the ultra rare recipe drop from the Scorchbeast Queen, or through purchase from the Enclave science lab for 4400 caps (each). Mutations are cured with Radaway unless the player has the Starched Genes perk (which prevents Radaway from removing mutations). Another Perk called Class Freak lowers the negative impacts of a Mutation by 75%. Players can technically acquire all mutations in the game at once, but it’s random as to which mutation is gained unless it’s purchased. One method people use to gain a mutation is to stand on top of the Waste Barrels at the Black Bear Lodge. Dying does not remove a mutation. But one has to be cautious because even if a character obtains multiple mutations, the negative effects can be quite destructive depending on the build, one reason those with a ton of caps opt to purchase just a couple specific mutations. There’s no question the current set of available mutations favors Melee builds. I hope Bethesda adds and adjusts the Mutations to address this issue. For example, here are a few of the popular mutations:

Death is trivial in FO76. You just drop your junk, and that’s it. There is no XP loss, item loss, or durability hit. If you are encumbered when you die, you can only spawn at the FO76 starting vault. I’m not sure if this was intentional or a bug, but not being able to respawn in your camp when encumbered is a pain. Luckily they are fixing the respawn selection issue with the December 4th patch.

There are numerous Enemies found throughout Appalachia, and none of them are friendly. The diversity is “ok” but not great as it is very similar to FO4. Scorched, Supermutants, Yao Guai, Giant Sloths, Molerats, Mirelurks, Hounds, Radstags, Deathclaws, Gulpers, Radscorpions, Bloatflies, Honey beasts, Radroaches, Snallygasters, Windigos, and the new creepy Molemen are just a few. Enemies come in three core flavors: Normal, Elite, and Legendary; and Legendary enemies can have up to 3 stars. Enemies have a scaling system tied to the region and the player’s level. One of the coolest things I saw in the game was a large full-sized bus deep in the high level forest, and as I approached the bus, it came to life and was a giant hermit crab (it literally used the bus as its shell). I ran, but it was awesome. Scorchbeasts are a problem though; they can attack you through walls, floors, and even when you’re deep in a house trying to hide. If a low level character with no power armor aggros a Scorchbeast, they are dead. There is no escape. So there are definitely some issues with enemies and the way they fight that need to be resolved.

The world of Appalachia is packed full of Rewards in the form of items, materials and objects, and loot from fallen prey. There is so much to loot and pick up throughout the world, it’s quite overwhelming. Want Aluminum? Hit Top of the World and grab all the ski poles you can find. Need Plastic? Visit the Watoga High School cafeteria and grab all the plastic utensils. Lead? The weight room in the Charleston Fire Department. While the game does have its issues, a lot of work went into placing and generating the world-based lootable items, which can also include weapons, food, drink, drugs, aid and ammunition. This is a good thing. Unfortunately, there are a lot of complaints about the rewards provided by Scorchbeasts; the difficulty in killing them just isn’t worth what their loot provides (and I agree). We also have the final Scorchbeast Queen fight – it can be worth it, but it is very difficult. In addition to 3-star legendary items, she also drops some of the end-game blueprints for Ultracite armor and Prime Receivers (for weapons). Prime Receiver weapons can only use Ultracite ammunition; blueprints for which are acquired through the Enclave quests.

Lockpicking and Hacking are similar to how they were in FO4 with the only difference being you can swap perk cards out as you need them. Some quests require lockpicking and hacking to continue, so as a player levels beyond 50 it’s very common for them to get the respective perk cards so they can swap them in on an as needed basis.

As mentioned above, Events are a common occurrence and one of the best ways to get blueprints and support items. They are also fun and can be quite diverse. Horde events always spawn at least one legendary monster, and common events like Uranium Fever, Grafton Day, and Leader of the Pack (great for new characters) are excellent for farming targets and legendary gear. Events are also excellent for leveling up; if you see a close event as you’re leveling, definitely go. What’s the current best end-game Event farming location? Monster Mash in Watonga High School. Tons of legendaries and you can do the event nonstop.

Many of the environments are quite stunning with the lighting and fog.

Taking Drugs is a big part of FO76. Want extra damage or resists? Pop a pill! But only one drug can be active at a time. However, to make things even more interesting, we also have Alcohol and Perk cards that allow players to be “luckier” while under the influence. So you can have a drugged out drunk heavy gunner running around in power armor. Let’s be honest. This is awesome.

Workshops are spread throughout the world and actually play an important part in the game. They are static areas that provide resources through extractors that must be built, powered, protected and maintained. A player can “claim” a workshop, or even steal a workshop from another player. Areas with workshops have numerous resource gathering nodes that can extract valuable materials such as minerals, purified water, nuclear waste, and even create fusion cores. Once a workshop has been claimed, the player must build the proper resource gathering units on top of the respective nodes (which show in green on the screen based on the selected resource extractor). This system is confusing at first, but once a player captures and builds out a few workshop areas, they get the hang of it. Unfortunately, the built structures/objects for a Workshop area stay in the world once the player leaves, but the advantage to this is the next world a character joins could already have a great built out workshop area that is unclaimed. Players can also build nearly all CAMP structures/objects at a workshop, so if a player wants, they can set up generators, gun turrets, and even build structures to protect the Workshop area. Workshops are great for passive resource acquisition, and since it’s free to travel to them, a player can run off and adventure for 15 minutes, then jump (for free) to their claimed workshop, grab the loot from all the extractors, and then get back to adventuring. You’ll be notified if your workshop comes under attack by a player or a mob-led event. These events are very good to do since they award blueprints and items.

Treasure Maps are unique drops from fallen enemies that show a drawn photo-like 3D image of a location with an X. If you are able to find this location and go to the X, you can dig up the treasure, which can include some good CAMP blueprints and materials. It’s fun for those who like to explore, and the rewards can be quite lucrative, especially early on. Here’s a link to all Treasure Map locations.

Challenges are the FO76 equivalent of Achievements. They are shared for the account (not character specific) and include the following categories: Daily, Weekly, Character, Survival, Combat, Social and World. Completing each Challenge awards Atom points, and with daily challenges, a player can technically continue to earn Atom points just by playing every day. Once the store starts getting items that are actually cool, this is a nice system that rewards players with points to spend on MTX. I cover the Atom/MTX system below.

Nukes are end-game events where a player can launch a missile by selecting a “location” on the map and turning that location into a high-level irradiated zone with regenerating tough monsters that lasts for 90 minutes. It is one of the coolest events in the game; the warning can be heard and the mushroom cloud and rumble can be seen from all corners of the game (Bethesda did a great job with the visuals). If a player launches a nuke on the Fissure Prime site (in Cranberry Bog), the Scorchbeast Queen is guaranteed to spawn. 3 nukes can be launched per week per character. Nuke zones are great team leveling areas since they spawn tougher than usual monsters (which reward more experience) as well as more triple-star legendary monsters. An efficient team of players can farm a nuke zone (Whitesprings is the most popular) and level up like crazy all while getting great legendary drops. At this time, Nuke Codes are the same for all characters and change on a weekly basis. This means a player can acquire the codes online when others have deciphered them (they are generally posted within an hour or two of a new code being generated). But even if a character has the code from an online site (such as reddit), they still must have the Nuclear Card Key to proceed in the bunker, which can only be acquired by shooting down a Cargo Bot. Once a player has the Nuclear Card Key, they can visit one of the many “launch sites” spread throughout the game (Alpha, Bravo, etc.). Running the bunker to launch a nuke often requires a group of players as the enemies are tough, but it can be done solo (and each team member must have the Nuclear Card Key to gain access). For those who want the challenge of figuring out the code on their own, the player must hunt down the code pieces and decrypt the code using a number of steps, which are outlined here.

Friends forever!

The PvP system in FO76 is pretty much an afterthought. It is very unbalanced (easy 1-shots of people 50+ levels higher than you in power armor with the right weapon), and really not a focal point of the game. This is reaffirmed by the fact PvP can only be initiated by attacking a player and having them attack you back. Granted you can continue to attack a player without them going hostile, and you can kill them (if you do massive damage or just keep attacking), but there’s really no point to it. You can also destroy another player’s CAMP, and that will mark you as Wanted. When you go Wanted, a bounty is placed on your head and you show in red on the map (often causing other players to hunt you down for fun). The more people you kill or bases you attack, the higher your bounty goes. There is no way to remove the bounty except by dying. One PvP issue is if somebody tries to claim your Workshop and is in a party with another player, they can use the other player to block you from capturing the Workshop back while you are under attack. Issues like this reaffirm very little thought went into the PvP system. What Bethesda should have done was allowed people to play on PvE or PvP servers. That would solve the participation issue. There is also a Pacifist setting in the game options. Turning this on ensures you can never damage another player; this is useful when you have AoE damage and there are a lot of people around during a big fight.

Photomode (the ability to take in-game pictures) is actually very well done and a great feature. Selfies with poses (although limited), filters, FoV adjustment (they put it here, but not in the game settings – go figure), and even frames allow the player to take some great shots, which randomly display during the loading screens. Ah, the memories!

Economy

Caps are the primary currency in FO76 and can be acquired by looting monsters (Supermutants are currently the best), finding Caps Stashes (rare), trading with other players, or trading with Vendors. At this time, Vendors can only buy 200 caps worth of gear from the player once per day and there are 7 vendor “groups” which means a player (without subtracting fast travel costs) could gross only 1400 per day selling to each vendor group. This limit is a bit ridiculous because it forces players to simply dump sellable items. For those who are interested, here is a Vendor Selling Guide.

We also have the newly added Atom Store where players can buy MTX (micro transactions) for their characters. Choices include emotes, CAMP objects, clothing and power armor skins, but the reality is the MTX selection is a bad joke. And on top of that, the prices are ridiculous; for example, a simple virtual dress can cost $10 in Atom points (real money). You can buy a real dress on Amazon for $8. Think about that for a bit. Absolutely no thought went into the MTX store for launch, and it’s supposed to be one of the most important financial/supportive aspects of the game (to generate additional and recurring revenue). This lends even more evidence as to the sheer stupidity and incompetence of the FO76 team. Everyone in X01 power armor pretty much looks the same with only 4 variations (each of which are full skins with no mix and match). These “skins” are purchased with Atom Points, which can be earned by completing Challenges or purchasing with real money. Note FO76 is NOT Pay to Win. All MTX purchases are cosmetic only. This is a good thing. I just want to be able to make my character really look unique, and the game doesn’t currently offer a selection that’s worth mentioning. It’s quite sad.

Trading is cumbersome and such a pain that very few players use it. Bethesda put no thought in the practical application of player trading for this game, and the reality is it needs some sort of trading hub or vendor system (perhaps at a player’s CAMP) with a separate stash specifically for selling items. Right now, most players trade just by dropping items on the ground so their friends can pick it up.

You can actually make some very cool looking CAMPs.

Technical

FO76 is a shard-based multi-world online gaming system. The Server Hosting allows players to transparently hop from world to world or collaborate with friends. A total of 24 people can be in any given world at a time. The hosting is quite abysmal; I’ve had wait times up to 4 minutes trying to get into a game world, and I regularly get server disconnection notifications. For an online experience with only 24 people, this is probably the worst online coding job I’ve ever seen. It has sometimes taken me more than 10 minutes just to get into a world that is “stable”. There are also occasional server disconnects, the worst being right after you launch a nuke! The problem with a server disconnect is you cannot get back to the world you were in unless a friend/teammate was (and still is) in the same world. Invisible monsters also regularly attack you due to desync, which can mean certain death for low level characters.

There are numerous Exploits in the game, which in some regards are ruining the underlying game experience. Item duping, power leveling (not legit), and even gaining the ability to carry infinite weight by unequipping and reequipping a piece of pocketed gear. What’s sad isn’t the fact these exploits exist; what’s sad is Bethesda hasn’t done anything about the exploits in weeks. Exploiting ruins the game and economy for other players and should be a top priority to address, especially in a persistent online virtual world. The fact Bethesda has done nothing about these issues (and obviously knows about them) is just another indication of the overall incompetence and disconnection of the FO76 team and their lack of interest (and skill) in supporting (and creating) a quality product.

I’ve gotten Stuck a few times, but it’s quite rare. Logging out and back in solves the issue.

Despite the public outcry, I think the Graphics of FO76 are just fine. While it’s obvious the 3D engine is a bit dated, running with Ultra settings renders well for this post-apocalyptic world. Explosions look great (and render well in the distance), and some of the volumetric fog rendering paired with light from time of day and other environmental factors can result in some beautiful screenshots. And as mentioned previously, the Nukes are gorgeous. It all comes down to time of day, color, lighting, and such; however there’s no question this isn’t an “amazing new engine”. Sadly, Bethesda didn’t include a FoV slider and forces Distance Blur on everyone (which I do not like). Windowed and Windowed Fullscreen also don’t work with my multi-monitor system (not sure why; both run around 3fps), and tabbing away while in a loading screen resets the full-screen resolution to a wonky compressed size that force me to restart the game to correct. I can only run in full-screen mode, which prohibits me from multi-tasking while FO76 is running.

The User Interface is pretty much a complete carry-over from Fallout 4. That’s good for core gamplay, but bad for the new systems supporting Multiplayer. As such, the Social interface is pretty abysmal; you can’t tell what level somebody is, what character they are on (since it only shows the account name), and you can’t make any notes associated with friends (which would be really helpful to remember who is who). It’s as if Bethesda simply ported the FO4 UI and then threw together a rudimentary interface in for the new features just a few weeks before BETA.

The Music is actually quite good. It blends well with the environment, and the shift in music between combat states is well-done.

As mentioned, FO76 is chocked full of Bugs, crashes, load time issues, exploits and server disconnects. I’ve found the best way to shut the game down is with end-task because alt-F4 can often cause a near 30-second delay to completely shut down (which shows terrible code). I’ve also spent more time staring at “loading” screens with this game than any other game I’ve played over the past decade. FO76 is actually one of the buggiest “AAA” titles I’ve ever seen. Bethesda should be ashamed for releasing the game in this state.

Early morning at a local train stop…

Community

While it’s a ton of fun playing with your friends, the general Multiplayer (Social) aspect of the game is actually quite abysmal. The idiots at Bethesda thought Voice Chat and Emotes would be the only necessary means of communication in the game. Half of the time, Voice Chat doesn’t even work, and when it does work, it’s either always on or always off. There is no push to talk (which they are addressing in a future patch). This results in numerous noisy and awkward situations. As such, the majority of players simply turn their mic off, so all players are left communicating solely through limited emotes. FO76 does not support sending text messages or typing chat messages.These community and communication-based design decisions are a special kind of stupid the likes I have never seen. Even once Push to Talk is patched into the game, Bethesda has ensured players cannot properly communicate with each other unless they are in proximity or a team. This is sure to be an ongoing issue for all players, and the fact Bethesda hasn’t talked about addressing the core communication issues (which also came up during BETA) ensures they have killed a good part of this game’s community potential. There is also a known bug (since Beta) where the Friends list simply “bugs out”, and it doesn’t show or allow you to team up with your friends. That and you can’t see what character your friends are running or what level they are. It’s quite sad. Regardless, as I’ve mentioned previously, most players you encounter in the game are friendly and people seem to enjoy helping each other out. This is reaffirmed by the fact higher level players often drop weapons, ammunition and plans right outside the Vault 76 starter area for new players, which is very cool.

What’s unfortunate is playing in a Team always outperforms playing solo. The key reason for this is due to the team-based perk cards that enhance experience and provide other great benefits. All solo players really get is Lone Wanderer. Also, providing more experience when in a group makes no sense because a player already gets more experience in a group; so the game doubly rewards for group play, which is a form of punishment for solo play. This is a bad design.

There are no guilds (or any type of player organization) ,which is unfortunate. But it also makes sense given the terrible design forbidding any type of text messaging between players. A player-based faction system would have been a great idea, and this could lead to player-built towns and guilds/organizations having their own servers. There’s a lot of potential here.

And finally, we have the Fallout 76 Subreddit and Fallout 76 Forums. I personally prefer the subreddit, because players get responses to their questions much quicker (and with easy instant notification) than the Bethesda forums.

My buddy who helped me get the final materials to craft my X01 Power Armor suit.

End Game

The end-game of FO76 is all about Grinding. This includes server hopping to grind legendary mobs, Nuke Zones and the Scorchbeast Queen. The content is actually quite limited for those who want to push end-game, but for those who want to explore the entire map, there is always something to do, even if it’s a bit repetitive. I actually think end-game is more enjoyable for those who play solo, because the content is more challenging. When you’re in a big group, it’s easy to wipe all of the content quickly and efficiently. Ultimately, the game has some great future potential if Bethesda decides to expand the end-game content and methods by which a player can run and re-run dungeon-like instances and events, but with a focus on more specific rewards rather than pure RNG. Instances that also bring together random groups could be very cool as well; this would allow traditional loaners to quickly team up with others to do the equivalent of dungeon runs.

The Scorchbeast Queen (the highest level end-game boss) fight is actually tough, can be a lot of fun, and is quite involved;. But it’s not just the Queen, it’s all of the adds that come to her aid. As it is with other legendary targets, once she reaches 1/2 health, she regenerates back to full health (just once). There is also a time limit to defeat her of 20 minutes. Players who are planning for the fight can build bases (which will be destroyed by the nuke, but easily repaired) with missile launchers, which do make a difference in the fight. It’s also important to enable Pacifist Mode for such a battle so you don’t damage other players during the fight. Team Perk Cards (like sharing Stimpack) also help during the fight. The loot can vary; some people can kill her a few times in a single day and get nothing of value while others get Ultracite Armor Recipes and other end-game top tier legendary drops. It’s all random, but the potential is there!

Leveling is a key part of end-game because it allows the player to build out multiple Perk Card setups, and with the upcoming SPECIAL respec (due Dec 11), we will be able to spend unspent points on respecing our core SPECIAL abilities, which is pretty important. We also have Blueprint Hunting, which is a key part of the game because there are an absolute ton of blueprints (mainly for CAMP building). But as mentioned, they really should share Blueprints across an account because there are so many and some are very difficult to find/acquire. Once a player has all the core equipment they are looking for, it’s just a matter of repairing/maintaining that equipment. As such, Resource farming for repairs is always necessary, either through Workshop acquisition, or farming specific locations/monsters. World Exploration paired with Questing is also part of the end-game; the world is so huge and there is so much content and so many quests that it takes a long time to explore every single point of interest and complete every side story/mission. Modifying gear is also required for end-game; when you find that new legendary item, you’ll need to mod it to make it better, and you can only do that if you’ve scrapped enough of the item type to unlock the mod(s) you want. Caps Farming is also something players do when they want to buy Mutations and such. Note I’ve included a number of links at the end of this review that can help with different types of farming.

Players can also work to complete Challenges to obtain Atom points. This is one of the few mechanics that actually supports leveling up multiple new characters, so if you’re worn out playing your Heavy Gunner, start a new character that eats flesh to restore health and slices enemies with a Machete!

Conclusion

The reality is Fallout 76 is still in BETA. It is a mess, but the potential is definitely there; I do love the huge, vibrant and immersive world, but I’m guessing it’ll be 3-6 months before the game becomes what it should have been at launch. I believe it’s important to point out the level of incompetence and laziness from Bethesda; it’s quite unprecedented and brings a lot of concern about the quality of Bethesda’s future products. Am I hopeful about the future of FO76? Yes, because I think the core of the game has great potential, but in order to realize that potential, the team designing, developing and evolving Fallout 76 needs a wake up call (and possible replacement of key individuals). If the same team and people that handled the launch of FO76 are in control of the game’s future, we’re all in big trouble. But if the company shakes things up and restructures the process, procedure and overall design and development policies relative to the game, I think we could have a great product in the near future. I for one want to see Fallout 76 succeed. Let’s hope Bethesda learned from their mistakes and prioritizes fixing what has the potential to be a great game.

He just wouldn’t leave me alone!

Reference Materials

Below are some great reference materials to help support both new and experienced players:

]]>https://www.requnix.com/fallout-76-review/feed2Path of Exile 3.4 Delve Best Buildshttps://www.requnix.com/best-builds-for-path-of-exile-delve-3-4
https://www.requnix.com/best-builds-for-path-of-exile-delve-3-4#commentsMon, 12 Nov 2018 01:03:49 +0000http://www.requnix.com/?p=4330Delve is one of the best content releases for Path of Exile, expanding the end-game in a nearly limitless fashion, allowing players to push their builds to the limit for survival and reward. We have seen a substantial change from 3.3 to 3.4 in the most popular builds for pushing end-game content, as well as adjustments to what was the normal meta.

This overview is based on personal experience paired with feedback from the player base and the statistics on poe.ninja. The good news is I have played more than 80% of the end-game meta builds, so I am familiar with how they really play and “feel”.

The core goal of this post is to provide links to solid, viable, fun, and good build guides for Delve based proven guides, content clearing and player support.

Introduction

With the 3.4 Delve league, I have taken the following builds to end-game: Blade Vortex, Double Strike, Reave, Molten Strike, Holy Relic, Toxic Rain, Caustic Arrow, Arc (Self-cast, Totems, Traps and Self-Cast), Tornado Shot, Elemental Hit (Self-Attack and Totems), Raging Spirits, Holy Relic (Guardian). This includes numerous variations of single skills (for example I did Elementalist, Occultist and Trickster self-cast Arc), and also tested a number of the builds I thought were the best in SSF.

I first want to acknowledge how important play style is. Some people hate totems while others only play totem builds. Some like Melee while others love bow builds. The diversity of PoE is one of its greatest features, but also one of the most complex aspects of the game. While a build may be listed as “best” some players may disagree because of the style(s) they prefer – but one thing is assured – the builds listed herein are all rock solid and viable for their represented roles. There are other more powerful builds that are more complex (and sometimes powerful), but they generally require respecing, farming specific items/uniques/item rolls, and other factors — but the reality is most of these builds don’t provide enough of an advantage to the core requirements to outperform the below recommendations.

The below list was created based on a combination of my personal experience with the builds, the experience and recommendations of my friends and colleagues in PoE, comments and feedback from players in Reddit and the PoE forums, builds run by active PoE streamers taken to end-game, and cross-comparing to the top 100 leaderboard builds.

Before we begin, Path of Building is a very important tool to have when following a build guide since many of them share PoB links. Additionally, make sure you have a good loot filter. I personally recommend NeverSink’s Loot Filter.

Getting to maps and farming while surviving and having the ability to do all end-game content are key requirements for each of the recommended builds. This guide does not include ultra expensive builds for players who have accumulated a large amount of currency. This guide is perfect for new players, late league starters, or those who just want to try another build that will work for end-game and is fun.

The Leaderboard and Top Builds

Before I present the list, I want to say something very important: just because it’s on the top 100 list doesn’t mean it’s a “best build”. Many (if not most) of the top players run builds that are designed solely to push 100 and nothing more (farming specific maps); however many of these builds are capable of doing all content (Shaper & Uber Elder), and pushing deep delves 600+. People on the top 100 list are hardcore (play style not HC mode), experienced, and pushing 100 and/or delves 600+ is an art all of its own that generally has no application to the average player – but we can still learn from these builds. I also want to elaborate on how I interpreted the top build from the leaderboards. These characters can be found on poe.ninja builds. There are three core categories to consider: Softcore, Hardcore and SSF (and variations of each). Keep in mind those who are 95+ and do not play SSF often group with others (including aura bots), which includes sharing items and maps. This augmentation can misrepresent the viability of an end-game build and its capability to run without a party and reach 100 as quickly as it has. This means SSF is the best indicator of a build’s capability to progress without aura bots and party support. SSF players that push 95+ are a special breed of dedicated folks who usually put 8-12+ hours of game time in each day. These are not average players; but average players can learn from them.

Below are the statistics pulled from the poe.ninja builds top characters in each league subsection. Note many profiles are set to private, so this data is only based on public profiles that have their skills shared with the community. The below list is in order of popularity and use.

What can we learn from this? Blade Vortex is the most popular skill across the league and Juggernaut is the most popular ascendancy (overall). But, delve depth is a factor. The above numbers are for those who have reached a depth of 300+. Note in normal Delve this only pulls level 95-100 characters as numerous characters in their 80’s have reached delve 300+. So let’s dive in a bit deeper and look at the builds that have achieved a deeper Delve depth.

The fact that just 5 characters in HC SSF have gone below Delve 600 shows how dangerous deep delving is and how refined equipment (not available in SSF) is essential. While the last few leagues saw Sunder as “king of SSF”, it is now Blade Vortex and Molten Strike. Elemental Hit is tough because an optimal EH build requires the two jewels to negate cold and lighting damage (to solely focus on fire).

But the final results of Delve are this – it’s the league of Blade Vortex and Molten Strike.

My Favorite Builds from 3.4 Delve

Before I dive into the recommended build list, I wanted to share my favorite builds from the 3.4 Delve league; and of course each of them is on the below build list. Out of every build I played, these were my favorite. While I shared this list above, I’ll do it again for context. I have taken the following builds to end-game: Blade Vortex, Double Strike, Reave, Molten Strike, Holy Relic, Toxic Rain, Caustic Arrow, Arc (Self-cast, Totems, Traps and Self-Cast), Tornado Shot, Elemental Hit (Self-Attack and Totems), Raging Spirits, Holy Relic (Guardian). This includes numerous variations of single skills (for example I did Elementalist, Occultist and Trickster self-cast Arc), and also tested a number of the builds I thought were the best in SSF. The Relic Guardian (below) will be my 3.5 league starter.

My favorite build this league was the little-known Holy Relic Guardian. It uses Cyclone with Life Gain on Hit for movement, Herald of Agony for bosses/tough targets (with Phantasms for distraction), Herald of Purity and Holy Relic for additional damage. I’ll be honest. This is the best build I’ve played in years. It’s fully end-game viable, can do all content, is SSF friendly, and fun to play. I killed Minotaur in under 15 seconds with this build and took it below delve 300 (others have taken it 600+). What makes it so great is all the “pets” are targeted by the mobs, and for those few that target you, the life-gain on hit cyclone works beautifully – especially in darkness.

Toxic Rain Pathfinder is fun, quite powerful, scales well, is a great league starter, can delve below 600 and can also do Uber Elder. I really enjoyed it this league.

Molten Strike has always been strong, but it has undoubtedly become king of Delving due to its AoE damage and leeching capabilities. I played many variations of Molten Strike this league (including the 1000+ delver) and actually had the most fun with FastAFGaming’s Deadeye Molten Strike version. There isn’t a build guide, but he includes a Path of Building link that is very easy to follow.

Arc (Self-Cast, Traps and Totems) is a ton of fun and I tried all variations this league. I’ve linked the strongest of them all below in the Best Delve Builds section (Arc Traps), but want to also include the very powerful and fun Arc Totem variation (which somebody took to 950+ so it’s definitely viable). I also played all 3 self-cast versions of Arc: Enki’s Witch Elementalist (which was fun and balanced), a tankier Occultist version (which survived better, but didn’t have the damage I wanted), and the Zeus Assassin variation, which I found to be the best overall (and could actually kill bosses pretty well!).

I want to wrap up with Lunasicc187’s Elemental Hit Totems because he created a near 10M DPS version that truly wrecks everything. While it’s not very good at delving deep, it completely wipes all maps and bosses.

Each of the above builds should be just as viable in 3.5 as they are in 3.4.

The Build List

For clarity, the below build list is designed for pushing delves. This is very different than pushing other end-game content, since Delves require close quarters combat and avoidance mechanics; the opposite of (for example) fast mappers. The good news is these builds do very well in both Delves and end-game and can be used to easily push 600+ and kill Uber Elder.

Best Delve Builds

The Poet’s Pen Volatile Dead Pathfinder is the #1 deep delver for Path of Exile. Frenzy is used for “tagging” and life gain on hit, and Unearth/Bodyswap paired with Volatile Dead destroy pretty much everything in sight – think of it as Summon Raging Spirits with a nuke and without the required casting time. It’s fun, moves fast, and was just as powerful last league – it’s just proving to be the best overall delver. However, this build is very expensive (the flask alone is more than 20ex in a new league). The good news is the Hierophant Poet’s Pen Volatile Dead build doesn’t require this expensive flask! However it requires a 6L Shavrone’s chest and other items with a total investment of roughly 15ex to start. Either way, this build is expensive, but does it perform in softcore. It’s not hardcore viable.

For both Softcore and Hardcore, Molten Strike has proven to be the all-around best deep delver for 3.4. While there are many variations and ascendancies a player can choose for Molten Strike, the most common deep delvers are the Nebuloch Juggernaut MS and HoWA ES Occultist MS version.

Blade Vortex is one of the most popular all-around builds in 3.4. Elementalist BV for fun factor, speed and quick killing, and Occultist BV for survival.

Elemental Hit has been taken below 1000 and the majority of builds (90%) are Ascendants (Scions). The reason it is so popular is due to 1-shot clear speed, destruction of bodies (from fire and Pyre, which removes the exploding corpses in Delve), and the quick switch between the mapping bow and Chin Sol bossing bow (which can hit like a truck). My favorite Elemental Hit version is Thickk’s Super Tanky Elemental Hit build.

Arc Traps also reign supreme for survival and deep delving – while they can’t go as deep as the above builds, they’re solid for delving 600+ and quickly clear all content because they zap around corners.Sequel’s “Just Another Arc Trapper” build guide is the one I recommend.

Scion Reave is the most popular “true melee” (not counting Molten Strike) skill used to deep delve, and it performs very well with the right equipment, but can get rather expensive due to the 1H foil, offhand stat stick, and jewels. However I want to point out the most popular variation of the Scion Reave that is delving deep (1000+ in softcore) is a Slayer/Juggernaut variation that nobody has made a build for as of yet. You can see this end-game variation on the character Zandaera (who is level 100 and has gone to 750 in depth).

Righteous Fire is always a popular choice, and this league Juggernaut is joined by Guardian for the most played ascendancies. While RF wasn’t a popular choice in softcore, it did very well in hardcore. While RF is fantastic for farming easy delves for currency (darkness, etc.), very few players have gotten deeper than 600 with RF.

Deadeye Tornado Shot is still a party pleaser, and has surprisingly taken players below 1500 (and performs better than arc traps and righteous fire). Note these are cold TS builds that shatter the enemies, thus removing the exploding bodies. But make no mistake; TS is not a viable option for Hardcore deep delving. You will die. A lot.

There are definitely other great builds that could have made it on the list, but I think the above recommendations are overall the best for the Delve league, and will also be viable for the upcoming 3.5 release.

I hope this list helps the PoE community; here’s to the continued success of Path of Exile and the fantastic job Grinding Gear Games has done with the game!

]]>https://www.requnix.com/best-builds-for-path-of-exile-delve-3-4/feed2Path of Exile Delve Review (3.4) and State of the Gamehttps://www.requnix.com/path-exile-delve-review-3-4-state-of-game
https://www.requnix.com/path-exile-delve-review-3-4-state-of-game#commentsSun, 16 Sep 2018 18:02:36 +0000http://www.requnix.com/?p=4253Path of Exile has taken the spotlight as one of the most innovative ARPGs on the market. Every season the player base grows consistently, and with each new content release (every 3 months), the game evolves far beyond what the competition is able to produce. PoE is without question one of the most enjoyable, ruthless, frustrating, complex and innovative ARPGs ever made. And with the recent 3.4 Delve expansion, there’s no doubt the game is going to continue to grow, especially with the Chinese and XBox market releases. As an individual who has been playing PoE since BETA, I thought a state of the game overview was warranted in conjunction with a review of the new Delve content.

Let the Delving begin!

Delve Review

I believe this is one of the most ambitious mini-releases yet because it offers an alternate way to play the game. While last league’s Incursion system did provide a temple where players could pursue an aspect of the layout, the timed chaos damage definition rooms were rather redundant, and after awhile the temple (at least for me) became rather boring. There was also limited control over the difficulty of the Temple, and 1-shot chaos-based damage deaths reigned supreme.

Delves are something new; they are dynamic and procedural, allow the player to pursue the different nodes and depths at their own pace, and are packed full of treasure and monsters to kill. And even better, the new Delve system supports exploration – venturing into the dark corners of a constantly descending maze of dangerous and interesting locations.

How deep can you go?

There are two new resources in Delve: Sulphite and Azurite. Sulphite spawns throughout the world, including maps. At the beginning it’s only +5 or so per node, but in T13+ maps, players can find nodes of more than 200 (and this is being upgraded soon to increase the amounts in maps so players stop farming the Quarry). Sulphite is used to move within the Mine (or go “delving”) between nodes. This is how the game controls access; requiring players to gather Sulphite from normal and end-game maps (so a player can’t delve nonstop). Niko the Mad is the Delve NPC; he pops up whenever you claim a Sulphite vein, and it’s entertaining how he goes crazier the deeper you delve. Azurite is a resource found within the mine itself; this is used to update Sulphite Capacity, Darkness Resistance, Light Radius, Flares and Dynamite. The Mine Entrance acts as the new center of operations, where players can spend their Azurite to upgrade the above (at the Voltaxic Generator), including flare and dynamite count – both of which become important later in the game during “deep delving”.

The Delve system uses a procedural generated set of connected nodes of different types and themes (e.g. camps in magma or frigid areas). These nodes also define the reward type (e.g. Armor, Currency, Weapons, Azurite). There is also a Vaal Underworld region (which has a special outline and icons) that players can explore, which includes a new nasty boss. The vaal area is much more difficult than average nodes at the same depth, but the rewards are substantial. Players can focus on going deeper, or explore sideways. The mine is now shared (which is great), so if a player is (for example) on their 4th character and the mine is level 287 (way too deep for a new character), the new character can focus on going sideways (at level 50 for example) to continue exploration. Many nodes require the activation and completion of an event, which spawns multiple waves of enemies; these enemies vary depending on the node and terrain type.

Enter The Cart. This is the automated vehicle you follow (or that follows you) as you run from node to node. It serves as your guide while protecting you from the Darkness, which slowly kills your character and prevents you from doing damage to monsters. Darkness is a stacking degeneration mechanic; the longer you are in it, the more damage it does (shown by dark shadows on the edge of the screen), but if you stay within the light of your cart or a thrown flare, you are safe. This is how players explore the “dark corners” while Delving between nodes. There are numerous corridors that are “off the path” which players can run down to find stashes, which include the new Fossil and Resonator crafting items. Players can also encounter destructible walls, which are taken down with Dynamite. There are also “hidden nodes” that can be unlocked by destroying a specific wall. Nodes that are close to hidden walls have just 2 junctions – never 1, 3 or 4 (that’s how you can tell the region where the wall to a hidden node is located). During one’s adventures through the darkness, the player will encounter numerous treasure troves; Hidden Wealth (currency), mini Azurite nodes, Armor, Jewelry, Flare and Dynamite Stashes, and more. Once a player reaches a new node, there are usually Events that either automatically trigger, or must be activated to trigger. These events always involve numerous spawns and waves of nasty creatures (depending on the theme and node details). Once the event is complete the node becomes “claimed” and explodes in a plathora of loot. One of the nice things about the Cart system is once a node is claimed, lit wires appear that link the way between the new and previous node. If you missed something (a rare fossil for example) while following the cart between nodes, you can always go back and get it! Just make sure you don’t reset the node instance (this can be avoided by pressing the return to mine button on the delve UI while in the mining camp).

Delves operate as mini-instances, similar to maps. However, since the Delve system is procedural (and technically limitless, since it’s built as you go sideways or down), there is roughly a 5×5 “size” limit, requiring the player to enter another instance once they have left the boundaries of the current instance. Players will notice after they delve through a number of points that the game reloads an entirely new instance, even though it’s in the same region. This 5×5 “block” can cause hardcore delvers running through the dark to encounter invisible walls.

How to Fossil craft a +3 bow.

Fossils and Resonators are the new crafting components for Delve; and they are very powerful, allowing for a new range of end-game items to be created (including +5 bows, for example). Resonators have between 1 and 4 sockets, and players can put whatever fossils they want in the sockets to complete the resonator, which can then be applied to an item. Using fossils and resonators are all about blocking certain rolls to ensure other rolls can be met. The system is a bit complex, but once the basics are learned, players can have a lot of fun crafting some crazy items.

Delve also introduced new and adjusted Skills. This includes Smite, Toxic Rain, Scourge Arrow, Ancestral Warchief (Vaal), Consecrated Path, Dominating Blow, Herald of Purity, Herald of Agony, Summon Holy Relic, Static Strike, Caustic Arrow, Withering Touch, and the renaming (and adjustment) of Physical Projectiles to Vicious Projectiles. Toxic Rain appears to be by far the most used new skill, and it’s a lot of fun. The new Vaal Ancestral Warchief is also quite entertaining as the totem now jumps around, smashing its victims.

There are also 25 New Uniques. I find the most interesting one to be the Soulwrest Ezomyte Staff, which summons Phantasms when consuming a corpse; this allows for a new style of pet play, which is quite powerful.

Keys to the Timeworn Reliquary can also drop. Using a key with Zana opens a map to a single chest that contains a random unique item that can have legacy (old and very powerful) rolls.

But let’s talk about two new features that are probably the best and most loved by the player base. The first is that of the New Zana System where she now offers multiple maps and missions one can choose from. This is awesome because it allows the player to choose between different map layouts and even rewards (one map may drop a unique while another guarantees a trial). The second is the new Item Drop Map Icons and Sounds. This change is fantastic and addresses the issue of valuable items dropping off-screen (a big problem for ranged characters). One wonders why GGG waited so many years to add such a simple yet impactful feature players have been asking for since the launch of PoE.

Delve also brings the new Lightning System, and it’s beautiful. However, it’s not turned on by default; many players are unaware they need to go into the graphic options and enable “Shadows + Global Illumination” under the Detail Settings.

While this new league (like every other) had issues the first week, GGG was quick to patch, fix, and address the bugs and player concerns. Mines are now shared, sulphite has been increased in maps, and the bugs preventing item pick-ups, functionality of flares and dynamite have all been fixed. In the end, the Delve system has and continues to be refined, which is a great thing. There are still a few outstanding problems. Sometimes, Delving will come to a halt (and not allow selection of another node) after completing a node, requiring the player to exit the mine entirely to reset the ability to move to the next node. Another big problem is once a node is complete, left-click always activates it – even when combat is still taking place, so a melee player who is trying to move (with left click) during combat may accidentally click on the node and the UI pops up – in the middle of combat (which can result in a quick death at lower levels). Changing the node selection to Shift-Left Click would solve this issue. Players also need fossils and resonators to stack. Badly.

There were also additional issues where the community became enraged after changes were made to Sulphite gathering and node travel amounts. The backlash from the players was so severe that GGG quickly made adjustments to ensure the amount of Sulphite that dropped was more than initially available (and node travel amounts were reduced), but also explained they wanted delving to sustain in parallel with mapping. The problem with this approach is people wanted to play the new Delve content more than the old Atlas/Mapping system (which makes sense). My personal opinion was enticing players to spend more time in delves for end-game is what the league should have focused on; not blocking delving through the already established mapping system. Regardless, with the recent changes, complaints have subsided. One interesting note is people were so focused on talking about restrictions on delving downwards (to get as low as possible) that few (if any) talked about delving sideways at a higher level (which costs far less Sulphite). In my opinion, that’s where the real reward is; vaal and abyssal cities, currency nodes, and other special/unique nodes. I think the Sulphite gathering amounts and node travel amounts are better, but still not where they should be because players have to spend more time in maps now than Delving, and that’s unfortunate as this league is supposed to be all about delving. Quite often, maps will also spawn just 1 Sulphite node (this includes in T14-T16 maps). I’ve run 4-5 maps in a row, each of which had only one node (T14+) and even with 110%+ quantity, the amount was <1000 for each node. Running 4-5 of those maps can take 20+ minutes. The Sulphite from those maps is often depleted in just 10 minutes or less. But it’s possible to encounter multiple nodes in multiple T14+ maps in a row, which makes a huge difference; as such RNG plays a big factor. GGG should make further adjustments to this system so players can spend more time in Delves and less time in maps.

In conclusion, I think the impact of Delve is far greater than the community may realize. Only just now (more than two weeks later) are many players starting to realize how extensive, fun, challenging, and focused on exploration this league is. A very important focal point is the “endless content” design mechanic. Delve is the first real content added to PoE that has never-ending scaling, enticing players to refine their build(s) to be as good as they can. The original level depth cap of 1,500 was shattered by a group of crazy and experienced players, quickly requiring GGG to adjust the delva cap to 3,000. So while there is a “max depth” define, 99.9% of players will never, ever reach it. Delve is fun, engaging, a great enhancement to PoE, and has been very well received by the player base. It is also extremely rewarding, offering some of the best loot drops I’ve ever seen in the game. It will make a fantastic enhancement to the core game, guaranteeing that the term “delving” becomes a permanent and positive part of Path of Exile.

State of the Game – The Good

Chris Wilson and the team at GGG have set a new standard of the most active patching and content evolution release schedule in the industry. Nobody even comes close. Many other companies could learn a lot by they way GGG has built and continues to expand PoE. This includes new Leagues every 4 months (with a fresh start) where each league is almost always better than the last one. Races are also fun events that players thoroughly enjoy. And more importantly, Chris listens to the players. He is very active and responsive on Reddit, and few games in the industry have such great representation.

The Community Interaction in PoE is also top notch. The forums and subreddit are always bustling with activity, and most are very helpful to new players and enjoy engaging in thoughtful discussion or have basic questions to ask. This is reaffirmed by looking at builds posted on the forums and how players work together (usually with the author) to make it even better. But there is also a dark side to the community; elitist hardcore players who believe anyone who can’t enjoy end-game, get to 100, or play hardcore mode are “idiots”. While this is a small percentage of the community (I’d say less than 5%) they are quite vocal and quickly attack players who complain about game-related issues and features. But the majority of the community is solid and welcoming.

Diversity in Character Builds is unprecedented; no other ARPG comes close to the combination of play styles you can build in PoE. Now, there are some viable arguments that the diversity is a bit of an illusion since so few builds can make it to end-game, but the reality is many of the PoE players who cry “meta” have been desensitized to how diverse the game is. Try 20 different builds in PoE then go back to D3 where there are only a handful (1-2 per class) of viable end-game builds. Looking at the league ladder, we can also see how diverse the builds can be.

Wealth building is a key part of PoE, and allows players to open new builds as they acquire more currency, find highly valued uniques, and trade with other players. While most unique items generally end up being useless and vendored or traded for the 5-item prophecy, there are enough to keep the game very interesting, and that rare Exalt drop always makes things more enjoyable.

Hard Content (solo) for the most skilled players rests at the core of PoE. GGG has built map and boss fights that only a fraction of the players will ever be able to complete. This is a good thing for the truly dedicated and very skilled players. It also gives casual players something to strive for, even though most of them will never get to (and defeat) such content.

I do want to cover the positive side of the way Trading currently works. In its current form, it does bring players together; you get to see other people’s hideouts, their characters (MTX), and often end of chatting, which can sometimes result in new friendships.

The Crafting in PoE is also unprecedented and one of the most innovative features. I’m not aware of any game (namely ARPGs) that has a crafting system like PoE; paired with the Masters, it’s a great system; and rolling chests is awesome. Let us also not forget Prophecies, which entice players to fully explore maps and game zones.

The World Atlas is a very solid design; providing a path for players to follow at end-game and allowing numerous augmentations to make the game more challenging and rewarding. And the recent Zana enhancements with Delve make mapping even more enjoyable.

Hideouts are a great feature, and while the system can be expanded (covered below), it’s always enjoyable to visit other player’s hideouts when trading. I’ve seen some very unique, crazy, cool, and strange layouts from players.

The Item Filter system is also awesome and truly “required” with the sheer volume of drops the game now offers; but it could use some enhancements (which is also covered below).

There are many other positive aspects to PoE, but I believe the above references cover the core of what people love about the game. Make no mistake; the good list and accompanying content being shorter than the below list is no way indicative on PoE being a bad game. The reality is the good greatly outweighs the problems. PoE is a fantastic game and is well on its way to be the best ARPG ever made. That’s saying a lot.

State of the Game – The Problems

The lack of a Proper Tutorial is probably the biggest issue that drives new players away due to the complexity of the game; learning about skill gems, socket links, crafting and augmenting items all overshadowed with the extensive skill tree often overwhelms and confuses new players to the point of simply quitting before they even really start getting into the game. This brings a serious question – how does one take such a complex game (where the complexity makes it awesome) while also slowly introducing the complexity to the average player in a fashion they can absorb, support, and ultimately understand? It’s easy for people who have been playing ARPGs, MMOGs and other such games for years (or more than a decade) to forget how confusing a game like PoE can be for the “new player”. This is no easy task, however, the Build Template System proposed below would help address a number of these issues and walk players through predefined starter builds.

Once players figure out the basic mechanics, the second most problematic feature that drives players away from PoE is the Death System. First let’s talk about why it exists. GGG wants the game to be extremely difficult for the 1% (or less), and for very few players to ever achieve level 95-100. Since there is no alternative leveling system (such as paragon from D3) the core design of the game revolves around making level 100 being as difficult as possible. This core mechanic is flawed in today’s gaming market because many players want to just play and not compete, and will never be part of the 5% let alone the 1%; but they want to progress and grow their characters, and if they love a specific build, they want to stick with the play style. PoE does not allow that. Most players hit a “brick wall” in the late 80’s where they feel progress with their current build is just too tedious (due to deaths and loss of XP), so they often quit the character and go play something else (another character or game). This is a big problem for players who love a particular play style (and character) and feel “stuck” because they’re constantly dying and not progressing in any capacity beyond currency/equipment drops. But it’s more than just dying; a key factor is how it impacts other aspects of the game, such as grouping with other players and prohibiting character progression. PoE has more 1-shot mechanics than any other ARPG (and those mechanics continue to grow as features and dynamic permutations to mobs and environments are expanded), and people don’t want to group with others because it often ends up getting them killed. What’s interesting is GGG states the PoE death system is based on the D2 death system, but that game is 18 years old and did not have the 1-shot mechanics that PoE has, so a player can die multiple times in a row and lose hours (or more) of character growth. This causes rage-quits by many. Another problem is the death system prohibits reckless fun and real exploration; around level 90, most players become overly cautious relative to running new maps or tackling new bosses because they don’t want to die and lose their experience. Additionally, the fact the game allows for Alt-F4 logout to circumvent this penalty is a symptom of an underlying design flaw. The truth is PoE’s end-game is solely designed for hardcore players, and very few are able to tolerate and progress in such a system (often resulting in the abandonment of their character, even if it’s fun to play). Games are supposed to challenge, limit, and give to players – but (in my opinion) not take away. It’s one thing to lose access to your map when you die, it’s another to lose hours (or more) of character growth due to a death that even some of the most skilled players would have difficulty in avoiding. This isn’t challenge, it’s punishment. The game is designed to reach level 100 with no other means of growth outside of the Labyrinth (which is another key problem, covered below). This is why most modern games have some sort of secondary leveling mechanic beyond core character level. Once your character hits 100 and you’ve completed Uber Lab, you’re done with your character growth (outside of equipment). Now to be fair, the current design is so only the most skilled and hardcore players can achieve end-game. GGG doesn’t want all players to make this achievement (which is a big deal). However, this ensures casual players who never gain the level of skill necessary are unable to grow their characters beyond a certain point, save equipment upgrades (which of course makes a difference, but that’s gear, not character growth). When it comes to retention, the Death Penalty drives players away. If the death penalty was part of Normal difficulty, how many players would quit early on? I believe many; it’s a form of bait and switch – let the player go through the start of the game (Normal) and don’t hit them with the penalty until later on – when it matters. That’s not a good design for retention. Many (hardcore) players think the Death Penalty is too easy, or the Lab is awesome and should be used to cull the herds to separate the skilled from those who aren’t as quick. The simple truth is people play games to have fun, and taking from a player’s time, energy, and effort is counterproductive to overall game design. Of course the hardcore (not talking HC mode, but “hardcore” players) base of PoE is the most vocal, and GGG somehow thinks their feedback represents the casual gamers (which are the majority of PoE players). This is not the case. You almost never hear from the casual gamer that quit PoE due to the death penalty or labyrinth – because they quit and are gone. Heck, you can 1-shot kill yourself in your own hideout by using the wrong flask. Even veteran HC players have accidentally done this. I think balance is necessary. Keep Hardcore the way it is (and let players who want such a challenge play in HC), and make some sort of adjustment to “standard” that doesn’t punish players by taking away their efforts. One interesting note is the Chinese release of PoE contains a purchase that either prevents or restores the death penalty XP loss. This shows another market believes alternatives to the experience loss are necessary for the game.

I want to mention one-shot deaths again on its own. This is a huge problem in PoE; it’s not even having a lack of a combat log, it’s the sheer complexity of mob abilities paired with specific factors. I would say the massive majority of deaths of the most experienced players are all due to 1-shot mechanics. Events that are often impossible to avoid, or a combination of math (extra damage+crit+multi+whatever else) executed by an off-screen purple ranged group that hits you before you can even see them. While the game has gotten easier as one levels their character, the 1-shot deaths are happening more often as GGG keeps compounding augments and complexities to mobs through map modifiers and other factors. This is a dangerous path that doesn’t have any current side roads. As the game continues to evolve in its current direction, this problem is just going to get worse – and that’s not a good thing. Nugiyen’s face says it all here.

Related to the above is the issue with Detonate Dead. It’s interesting that GGG finally addressed Volatile monsters, which would 1-shot even the most experienced players (the system now creates a giant ball you can dodge, paired with a very unique sound FX). Detonate Dead is now the new Volatile. It provides no warning (of any kind) and can 1-shot characters (and does, on a regular basis). This needs to be fixed just as much as Volatile did, but GGG seems to think creating new content is more important than fixing broken mechanics such as this.

Another problem is the fact GGG has forced gambling upon its player base for the latest (and best) microtransactions through MTX Boxes. It doesn’t matter how much you have spent or want to spend, if they release something new and awesome, it’s all up to RNG. Many of the lead streamers have spent between $400 – $800 just to get the latest “awesome MTX set” because… gambling is the only way to get it. Of course normal paying players can wait nearly 4 months to buy the MTX they want directly (GGG recently released the Sin and Innocence MTX, which was originally only available via the Mystery Boxes on March 3rd, 2018). Leaving the best new MTX all up to forced gambling (or waiting 14+ weeks) isn’t a good model to endorse support from those who love the game.

Next, we have the Labyrinth, which is the most controversial (and hated) feature in the game, shown by this ongoing thread with more than 700 pages of discussion (and simply doing a google search on the subject). Thousands (if not more) of people have complained about it, and rightly so. Forcing players to traverse a trap-based puzzle maze which has no relation to any other content in the game in order to secure ascendancy character progression (which is required to play end-game properly) is ridiculous. No, it’s absurd. Because the lab content is completely disconnected from (and unrelated to) the rest of the content in PoE, the game is essentially thrusting and forcing players to endure a process that simply doesn’t belong as a requirement in the game. While a handful of players enjoy running the lab (most of who make builds specifically to survive the lab and acquire/farm the enchantments and loot drops, which can be quite profitable), that’s fine for those who want to pursue such rewards. Remove the ascendancy acquisition requirement, but keep the enchantments (and treasure troves) locked behind the lab; players who don’t want to run it can farm currency and buy the enchanted gear from the handful that like to run the lab. It’s no different than than shaper and elder drops – let the most skilled and hardcore players obtain and sell those items to those who will never be skilled enough to victoriously fight the end-game bosses. Statistically, less than 1% of all players ever complete the final (Eternal) lab. This is another indication of the overall problem. Because the lab forces a completely different set of mechanics and play style on the players, many builds simply cannot complete it without sheer luck. Another key point is the Labyrinth system goes against the core of every recent content release , which has focused on world/explorable content, character progression, build customization and expanding the end-game system (as a whole). With every release, the Labyrinth becomes more and more outdated, and pulls further away from the essence of what PoE has become and strives for.

In the end, every player that I have known to “quit” PoE (either a character or the game) has done so either due to the death penalty or the labyrinth, or both.

Lack of Queued Command Execution is problematic and a mechanic that really should be in the game. You can be 100ms too early on an action/click and it won’t execute because your last action isn’t finished just yet, but other ARPGs handle this issue more gracefully (this is one reason D3 feels so smooth compared to PoE – it has a smart interpolation command execution queue). PoE should allow a player to foresee an event/action and execute another action knowing it’s going to be executed as soon as the action is available. Using a flask and having it activate when you’re at full health/mana would also be beneficial, allowing players to activate the restoration just as they jump into combat instead of having to wait to take a hit or lose mana.

There are a number of skill-based issues still in PoE. Freezing Pulse fails to go through doorways properly (which can result in a quick death), and Shield Charge has the old Cyclone issue of getting caught on every single minuscule item/object. Cyclone is also clunky as all getgo and needs to be converted to a real-time channeled skill. GGG needs to address these problems to make gameplay more smooth and enjoyable.

PoE really has no real Guild Features above a stash and tag. This is disappointing because so much could be done to bring players together. People have been asking for the guild system to be enhanced for years. I am hopeful future releases enhance the guild system and makes being in a guild actually mean something. This brings us to a connected issue: there is no real reason to Group with people in PoE. This is a big problem that makes trading the only real community-centric aspect of the game. As mentioned above, a big reason for this is due to the death penalty at end-game. However, there is also no content specifically designed to be tackled by groups.

And finally, we have the Lost Mouse Cursor. This is an issue where the cursor is so small, it’s often impossible to see its location on the screen during active combat events. Diablo 3 addressed this problem (and did it well) by adding a “large cursor” option to the UI settings. PoE desperately needs this feature as players are constantly losing the location of their cursor on the screen during battle.

State of the Game – The Potential

I believe a Build Template System would have a monumentally positive impact on the game. It could be integrated like the Item Filter system (i.e. downloaded and selected), allowing for players to select a specific build to follow, and also create a completely new community dedicated to designing and sharing specific builds, complete with level by level skill point distribution, defined skills, links, and gear. GGG could even include a few core starter builds with the deployment of the game and offer predefined builds to follow during character creation. As the character levels up, the “build guide” would highlight the recommended next skills, links, and even items to equip. This guidance would entice new players and give them something to strive for. Yes, players can follow the builds from the forums on other sites like the Build Browser (which just points to forum posts), but new players don’t know about these resources, and build guides are often incomplete and not designed for new players. Integrating a system like this would skyrocket the retention of new players and could act as its own tutorial.

One of the most common feature request from players is some sort of Auction House or Enhanced Trade system. Some have asked not for an Auction House, but want a more automated trade system for those who are online. As mentioned above, the current trade system does bring players together and shares hideouts with others; I believe a hybrid system is in order, where players can either trade old-style (as it is today) or use some sort of online queue/auction system. Perhaps a fee per transaction for the auction system would be in order (1a or 1c per transaction through the auction house depending on the value of the item).

PoE needs a proper Low Life Indicator. What’s very interesting is the game already has this in dimly lit areas (the lighting goes down as your health does) so the mechanic exists, but when you’re outdoors, it simply doesn’t work. I think Grim Dawn does it the best by drawing red that grows around the edges as your health lowers. Corrupted blood constantly kills players, even those who are experienced, because they simply don’t see their health drop due to multiple factors (in combat, running and seeing a chest in the upper right corner of the screen, etc.).

Another key issue is players often have no idea what killed them due to a lack of notification. Even veteran streamers are left scratching their head “what just killed me?” This is very important; it’s hard for players to learn how to play better when they don’t even know what killed them in the first place.

Cleaning Stash Space in the Standard league is such a tedious process most players avoid playing in standard altogether. GGG needs to add some method of cleaning stash after a league since it all starts piling up – and most players just want to delete it. It also makes me wonder how much storage space all the unused migrated league items are taking in the PoE item database; I’m guessing it’s well over 50% of the entire database.

The ability to toggle the User Interface would allow players to take much better screenshots, especially now with the beautiful new lighting system.

The ability to Pause the Game when playing solo would be a very nice addition; it’s not fun dealing with the phone or doorbell ringing while in the middle of a boss fight (yes, one can port, but pausing would be much better option). From a technical perspective this could increase the space requirements for the server infrastructure (since a player could pause an instance for hours, tying up server resources), so such a feature would require systems consideration; however with today’s cheap hosting costs (and the fact a paused instance would not utilize any processing power), it should be viable. However, such a feature could be used to abuse end-game boss fights where a player could pause the game in the middle of a very intense battle just to strategize on what they are going to do next. So there are reasons not to have this, but if a balance of implementation could be met, I’d definitely support it.

As covered above, there really isn’t any content in PoE specifically designed for groups. This does link to the Death Penalty issue where players generally don’t like to play with other people because it can easily get them killed, but there aren’t any fights or aspects of the game designed specifically for a combination of different builds (or that require collaboration to complete). Once again, this also references the community aspect of the game failing to truly bring players together as a team.

As covered above, PoE needs more Guild-based features. Such features could include custom maps, augmentations, bonuses (for achievements), master options, and even vendor enhancements.

There has also been discussion about Automatic Item Pickup by Pets. I personally think this is a great idea due to the sheer volume of items that drop; they could even allow pets to act as storage. But would this break the “no advantage to players who purchase MTX” to the game? Hard to say as those who spent money would be able to progress at a much quicker rate, but only through clean-up. One option is to provide pickup pets as one (or more) rewards for completing certain game content. Granted this is an exception to the rule, this video shows what a mess the game can create. Players would rather spend their time playing and fighting rather than running around and cleaning up their mess. And just today, it was posted that the Chinese version of PoE either already offers or will offer this feature.

An option to Turn off the XP Bar would be a nice feature for those players get enraged when they see the XP loss upon death.

Another regular request is for the saving (and sharing) of Hideout Layouts. A lot of time, energy and effort can go into building them, and I’ve seen multiple requests from players who want to save and share templates.

A Sort Inventory button would be fantastic, especially for the 4x size stash tab. Those who play Grim Dawn know how awesome (and useful) this feature would be.

The ability to Run world zones at different levels would enhance the game greatly. While one can shape a specific map to raise its level, some players want to run Dried Lake or other zones at a higher level. I hope future versions implement some sort of feature allowing for the augmentation of world zones to make them great farming zones for all levels.

And finally, we have the concept of an Exile Companion that one can equip and define the skills for. Not a guardian, but a full-fledged companion we can throw items on, level up, and equip skills with. Granted such a feature would have a monumental impact on the game (and open a wide door of abuse-potential mechanics), if it were done right, it would be an awesome enhancement and allow the players to have their own true in-game “buddy”. This could also open the door to “mini-group” content; boss fights that require the support of an Exile Companion (or another player).

Conclusion

There’s no question the recent releases of Path of Exile have been exceptional, with Delve leading the way as one of the best enhancements to the game. However, it’s one thing to enhance and expand the content of the game, but another to ignore key issues that drive players away or take too long to address common sense quality of life features players have requested for years (such as the recent new loot filter minimap icon system), especially when so many casual players are leaving Diablo 3 and looking for an alternative game to play. I’m an avid supporter of GGG and PoE, and I want only the best and success for the game; of course it’s easy to armchair quarterback a game of this complexity – many of these issues will take some serious consideration to properly address, but given the future growth of PoE, I believe making decisions that adhere to the core principals of the game while also evolving to address core mechanics, problems and complexities that drive players away is essential. Here’s to the bright future of Path of Exile!

]]>https://www.requnix.com/path-exile-delve-review-3-4-state-of-game/feed1Path of Exile 3.3 Incursion Best Starting Buildshttps://www.requnix.com/path-of-exile-3-3-incursion-best-builds
https://www.requnix.com/path-of-exile-3-3-incursion-best-builds#commentsSat, 19 May 2018 13:57:47 +0000http://www.requnix.com/?p=4215The upcoming Path of Exile Incursion League continues the exceptional pattern of content and gameplay growth of what has become one of the best ARPGs ever made. Even though 3.3 is going to include substantial skill changes, now that the 3.2 Bestiary Ascendancy changes have taken root, players can plan starting builds that we know will be perfectly viable in 3.3 based on their performance in 3.2. And now that the 3.3 Incursion patch notes have been released, we see there are no real nerfs to the builds covered herein; quite the opposite, there were many buffs!

The 3.3 skill changes are for the most part only buffs, and the redux of the Trap and Vaal skills (essentially allowing a Vaal skill to also level and act as a base skill) paired with enhancing ignite is going to empower builds even more; however these changes aren’t really going to make a huge difference in choosing a starting build based on what we learned in 3.2 unless one wants to try something new solely based on the redux of traps, ignite or a specific vaal skill. While Arc was buffed, Fireball looks solid, and Lacerate was reworked, the proven builds listed below are just as good as they were in 3.2, if not better due to the new Vaal skill changes.

As such, this overview is for players who prefer starting a new league with a build they can rely on rather than trying out something new and unproven based on the changes (but lets be honest, we know Arc will rock).

The core goal of this post is to provide links to solid, viable, fun, good starting and end-game viable build guides based on what we know will work (and not untested changes in 3.3). If you have any recommended changes to the below list, please make a comment!

I first want to acknowledge how important play style is. Some people hate totems while others only play totem builds. Some like Melee while others love bow builds. The diversity of PoE is one of its greatest features, but also one of the most complex aspects of the game. While a build may be listed as “best” some players may disagree because of the style(s) they prefer – but one thing is assured – the builds listed herein are all rock solid and viable for their represented roles. There are other more powerful builds that are more complex (and sometimes powerful), but they generally require respecing, farming specific items/uniques/item rolls, and other factors — but the reality is most of these builds don’t provide enough of an advantage to the core requirements to outperform the below recommendations.

The below list was created based on a combination of my personal experience with the builds, the experience and recommendations of my friends and colleagues in PoE, comments and feedback from players in Reddit and the PoE forums, builds run by active PoE streamers taken to end-game, and cross-comparing to the top 100 leaderboard builds.

Before we begin, Path of Building is a very important tool to have when following a build guide since many of them share PoB links. Additionally, make sure you have a good loot filter. I personally recommend NeverSink’s Loot Filter.

Getting to maps and farming while surviving and having the ability to do all end-game content are key requirements for each of the recommended builds. This guide does not include ultra expensive builds for players who have accumulated a large amount of currency. This guide is perfect for new players, late league starters, or those who just want to try another build that will work for end-game and is fun.

The Leaderboard and Top Builds

Before I present the list, I want to say something very important: just because it’s on the top 100 list doesn’t mean it’s a “best build”. Many (if not most) of the top players run builds that are designed solely to push 100 and nothing more (farming specific maps); however many of these builds are capable of doing all content, including Shaper. People on the top 100 list are hardcore (play style not HC mode), experienced, and pushing 100 is an art all of its own that generally has no application to the average player – but we can still learn from these builds. I also want to elaborate on how I interpreted the top build from the leaderboards. These characters can be found on poe.ninja builds. There are three core categories to consider: Softcore, Hardcore and SSF (and variations of each). Keep in mind those who are 95+ and do not play SSF often group with others (including aura bots), which includes sharing items and maps. This augmentation can misrepresent the viability of an end-game build and its capability to run without a party and reach 100 as quickly as it has. This means SSF is the best indicator of a build’s capability to progress without aura bots and party support. SSF players that push 95+ are a special breed of dedicated folks who usually put 8-12+ hours of game time in each day. These are not average players; but average players can learn from them.

Below are the statistics pulled from the poe.ninja builds top characters in each league subsection. Note many profiles are set to private, so this data is only based on public profiles that have their skills shared with the community. The below list is in order of popularity and use.

What can we learn from this? Juggernaut is the king of Ascendancies across the board due to its survivability. Barrage is #1 in SSF solely because nearly all ranged builds use it (TS/LA/Ice Shot/KB). Sunder is king of SSF, and for non-HC and non-SSF, players prefer Tornado Shot – but end-game TS builds require expensive gear and are squishy. Totems are very popular in SSF, and next to Juggernaut, Necromancer is the most popular Ascendancy to span all four game modes. Players also love their Spectre builds (which have great survivability).

My Favorite Builds from 3.2 Bestiary

Before I dive into the recommended build list, I wanted to share my favorite builds from the 3.2 Bestiary league; and of course each of them is on the below build list. Out of every build I played, these were my favorite. While I shared this list above, I’ll do it again for context. I have taken the following builds to end-game: Melee Skeletons, Zombiemancer, Zoo Summoner, Sunder (multiple), Cyclone (multiple), Molten Strike, Magma Orb, Tornado Shot, Poison Quill Rain, Reave and Reave/BF, Righteous Fire, Frost Blades (multiple), Wander, and Frostbolt/FP/GC/Arc Totems. While I haven’t decided on the build I’ll start the 3.3 Incursion league with, it will probably be one of the below three.

Catharsis’s Melee Skeletons was my favorite this league. Easy to level, the survivability was fantastic (SSF and HC viable), and the skeletons are quite powerful and fun. More than that, this build is capable of doing all game content (although Uber Elder is very difficult). Once you complete Cruel lab, you’re good to go; cast your skeletons in the middle of a group and watch the entire group explode. And this build rocks on just a 4-link Femur, which should be available the first day of the new league.

KissMeQuick’s Reave Build is the best melee build I’ve ever played (and that’s saying a lot). I was shocked to find Reave worked just fine for leveling, and once you hit L70+ Reave outperforms Sunder. It’s viable for all game content and the single-target damage is staggering. At L85 I killed Uber Izuro in ~3 seconds, and I didn’t even have BIS gear. And the survivability of this build is fantastic; there were numerous times I survived combination breach/abyss, and harbinger/beast attacks that no other melee build I’ve done in the past could have. And it’s fun. I also want to mention the buffs to Lacerate in 3. 3 could make the skill much more viable alternative to Reave and Sunder.

Frostblade builds are well-known to be glass cannons; once you Hit ~T10 there’s a threshold where characters start getting 1-shot left and right — however, Fiver’s Frostblades Raider is a blast, is very powerful, and for a Frostblades build, it has great survivability due to the leeching. This is the frostblades build to use, and it’s a great league starter and map clearer.

Each of the above builds will be just as viable in 3.3 as they were in 3.2, if not more due to the Vaal skill changes (except for Frost Blades).

The Build List

For clarity, this list is not created solely based on the top 100 builds from poe-racing; it’s based on many additional factors (covered above) including player support/recommendations, end-game viability, overall fun, and personal experience. Here we go!

Best all-around Starting Builds

Sunder still holds the top spot for softcore and hardcore “all around” gameplay. Sunder is also one of the most beginner friendly builds in PoE. The most popular Sunder builds are Gladiator and Champion, but it can be played as Slayer and Juggernaut as well.

Righteous Fire is the end-game king in 3.2 when it comes to all-around gameplay. Mapping, Eternal Lab, Uber Atziri, Guardians and Shaper; this is the build of choice by some of the most experienced players. While Juggernaut is the most popular ascendancy, the top players to reach 100 in HC and SSF (Aila did it in just 5d12h in SSFHC) used an Occultist variation of Righteous Fire – but this play style requires crazy flask management and is only for those most experienced with PoE. The Juggernaut style is much more relaxing and laid back, and the preferred choice by most RF players. For those who are interested, here’s the English translation of Aila’s Occultist RF guide. Note there are potential changes in 3.3 which will nerf Aila’s RF Occultist build.

Molten Strike with leech is crazy powerful and one of the best all-around builds available in PoE able to do all content. I actually completed the storyline and got to mapping faster with this build than any other (with 0 deaths). While the clear speed isn’t top tier (I’d give it a 5 out of 10), the boss melting and survivability is top notch. Plus it’s just fun to watch everything melt while sucking your victims life away. There is also a Sword’n’Board Juggernaut variation that’s built to farm all game content.

Essence Drain is still going strong and is one of the best league starters around; it also does a very good job of clearing maps, but requires substantial investment to complete Guardians and Shaper.

Ancestral Warchief is also considered one of the best league starting builds since it has minimal gear requirements, scales well, and allows for easy farming of the Lab. It’s excellent at killing bosses, but isn’t very quick at mapping. The Facebreaker Variation is considered one of the strongest, but requires the Facebreaker unique gloves; however these are usually very easy to acquire within the first day or two of a league.

With the recent ascendancy changes to Hierophant, Spell Totems are more powerful than ever. The most popular are Glacial Cascade totems followed by Frostbolt. GC totems handle bosses very well (and do not require any jewels to augment like FB/FP, making them a better choice as a starting character in a new league) but don’t clear maps as quickly as Frostbolt. Freezing Pulse totems are perfectly viable as well (1.5M Shaper DPS with end-game gear), and with the upcoming buff to FP, they will be even more viable in 3.3. Milky’s Righteous Fire Totems are also very powerful and fun for those who like totem builds. Arc was already solid in 3.2 and is receiving a very nice buff, so Arc Totems should rock in 3.3.

Melee Skeletons are decimating end-game and a blast to play with the Ascendancy changes in 3.2. My personal opinion is they are more fun than Spectres because the player doesn’t have to wait for them to move around and catch up, and they can be cast in strategic locations. Put them in the middle of a blue group and watch the entire group explode in one shot. Cast twice around a boss and watch it melt. Melee skeletons were the most fun I had last league and the mapping speed is quite good (6 out of 10). Boss killing? I’d rate it a 9 out of 10, and the build runs Eternal Lab with ease.

While I love skeletons, there no question Spectres are still exceptional for completing all content in the game. While players (like myself) are jumping on Melee Skeletons (as the new meta in 3.2) because they’re “new”, Spectres will always be a solid choice. The Zombiemancer is also a lot of fun, just not as quick as the Melee Skeleton build for map clearing, but the Zombies pack a whallop against bosses!

Best Speed Mapping/Farming Builds

Wander (Kinetic Blast) comes in first for speed farming and end-game mapping. People prefer Windripper for the magic find, but Kinetic Blast can clear faster than Tornado Shot, but it is not a boss killer. The Queenliness Wanderfinder is also a long-standing and classic wander guide. The standard is to farm Burial Chambers or Toxic Sewer.

Reave has replaced Sunder as the end-game melee speed farming skill because it has a wider strike radius than Sunder (and can thus kill faster). Most players start with Sunder and convert to Reave when they have upgraded/optimized their gear (around L75). However, I found a Reave guide that has the player using Reave from the start, and it’s probably one of the best melee builds I’ve played; as such I highly recommend KissMeQuick’s Gladiator Reave build. Additionally, here’s a Champion Guide.

I also want to add the best Cyclone build I’ve ever played to this list; the Tesla Cyclone (Slayer/Raider Ascendant) by Vashseden. It’s fast, powerful, maps almost as fast as a wander, and is capable of doing all game content (which a Wander is not); however the cost to do all content is quite expensive (due to the Starforge requirement).

There are definitely other great builds that could have made it on the list, but I think the above recommendations are solid for the upcoming Incursion league.

I hope this list helps the PoE community; here’s to the continued success of Path of Exile and the fantastic job Grinding Gear Games has done with the game!

]]>https://www.requnix.com/path-of-exile-3-3-incursion-best-builds/feed11Path of Exile 3.2 Bestiary Best Buildshttps://www.requnix.com/path-of-exile-3-2-best-builds
https://www.requnix.com/path-of-exile-3-2-best-builds#commentsSat, 24 Mar 2018 21:58:59 +0000http://www.requnix.com/?p=4187The 3.2 Bestiary release of PoE saw major changes to every Ascendancy, resulting in substantial enhancements across the board for many builds. While Righteous Fire, Tornado Shot, Wanders, Sunder and Spectres continue to dominate (in both normal and Hardcore), we are seeing more variation in builds that are end-game viable due to the ascendancy changes. This is a very good thing.

The core goal of this post is to provide links to solid, viable, fun, good starting and end-game viable build guides. If you have any changes, additions or recommendations, please comment below!

Introduction

So far with the 3.2 Bestiary league, I have taken the following builds to end-game: Melee Skeletons, Sunder, Cyclone, Molten Strike, Tornado Shot, Righteous Fire, Wander, and Frostbolt Totems.

I first want to acknowledge how important play style is. Some people hate totems while others only play totem builds. Some like Melee while others love bow builds. The diversity of PoE is one of its greatest features, but also one of the most complex aspects of the game. While a build may be listed as “best” some players may disagree because of the style(s) they prefer – but one thing is assured – the builds listed herein are all rock solid and viable for their represented roles. There are other more powerful builds that are more complex (and sometimes powerful), but they generally require respecing, farming specific items/uniques/item rolls, and other factors — but the reality is most of these builds don’t provide enough of an advantage to the core requirements to outperform the below recommendations.

The below list was created based on a combination of my personal experience with the builds, the experience and recommendations of my friends and colleagues in PoE, comments and feedback from players in Reddit and the PoE forums, builds run by active PoE streamers taken to end-game, and cross-comparing to the top 100 leaderboard builds.

Before we begin, Path of Building is a very important tool to have when following a build guide since many of them share PoB links. Additionally, make sure you have a good loot filter. I personally recommend NeverSink’s Loot Filter.

Getting to maps and farming while surviving and having the ability to do all end-game content are key requirements for each of the recommended builds. This guide does not include ultra expensive builds for players who have accumulated a large amount of currency. This guide is perfect for new players, late league starters, or those who just want to try another build that will work for end-game and is fun.

The Leaderboard and Top 100 Builds

Before I present the list, I want to say something very important: just because it’s on the top 100 list doesn’t mean it’s a “best build”. Many (if not most) of the top 100 players run builds that are designed solely to push 100 and nothing more (farming specific maps) – however many of these builds are capable of doing all content, including Shaper. People on the top 100 list are hardcore (play style not HC mode), experienced, and pushing 100 is an art all of its own that generally has no application to the average player – but we can still learn from these builds. I also want to elaborate on how I interpreted the top 100 build from the leaderboards. These characters can be found on poe-racing.com. There are three core categories to consider: Softcore, Hardcore and SSF (and variations of each). Keep in mind those who are 95+ and do not play SSF often group with others (including aura bots), which includes sharing items and maps. This augmentation can misrepresent the viability of an end-game build and its capability to run without a party and reach 100 as quickly as it has. This means SSF is one of the best indicators of being solo-viable. Just because a character/build isn’t in SSF doesn’t mean the character was played in an Aura/Support group – but that must be taken into account. SSF players that push 95+ are a special breed of dedicated folks who usually put 8-12+ hours of game time in each day. These are not average players; but average players can learn from them.

Below are the statistics pulled for the poe-racing site of the top 100 characters in each league subsection. Note many profiles are set to private, so this data is only based on public profiles that have their skills shared with the community. The below list is in order of popularity and use.

HC BestiaryDying is a no go – but can still group and trade.
Top 5 Skills: Righteous Fire, Sunder, Barrage, Tornado Shot, Reave
Top 5 Ascendancies: Juggernaut, Guardian, Ascendant, Necromancer, Deadeye

What can we learn from this? Juggernaut with RF/Sunder is king if you’re pushing 100 and doing SSF or HC. The top folks (level 100) in Bestiary (normal and hardcore) generally run in groups, which includes aura bots. In normal, a player hit 100 in 3d8h where Hardcore was 4h18h (with the others averaging 8d) – no question they were grouping. Hierophant also joined the top 5 list due to the totem buff, and Deadeye is one of the most used ascendancies (overall).

The Build List

Because of the ascendancy changes of 3.2, I wanted to wait a few weeks before I compiled and finalized the below list. For clarity, this list is not created solely based on the top 100 builds from poe-racing; it’s based on many additional factors (covered above) including player support/recommendations, end-game viability, overall fun, and personal experience. Here we go!

Best all-around Builds

Sunder still holds the top spot for softcore and hardcore “all around” gameplay. Sunder is also one of the most beginner friendly builds in PoE. The most popular Sunder builds are Gladiator and Champion, but it can be played as Slayer and Juggernaut as well.

Righteous Fire is the end-game king in 3.2 when it comes to all-around gameplay. Mapping, Eternal Lab, Uber Atziri, Guardians and Shaper; this is the build of choice by some of the most experienced players. While Juggernaut is the most popular ascendancy, the top players to reach 100 in HC and SSF (Aila did it in just 5d12h in SSFHC) used an Occultist variation of Righteous Fire – but this play style requires crazy flask management and is only for those most experienced with PoE. The Juggernaut style is much more relaxing and laid back, and the preferred choice by most RF players. For those who are interested, here’s the English translation of Aila’s Occultist RF guide.

Melee Skeletons are decimating end-game and a blast to play with the Ascendancy changes in 3.2. My personal opinion is they are more fun than Spectres because the player doesn’t have to wait for them to move around and catch up, and they can be cast in strategic locations. Put them in the middle of a blue group and watch the entire group explode in one shot. Cast twice around a boss and watch it melt. Melee skeletons are the most fun I’ve had this league and the mapping speed is quite good (6 out of 10). Boss killing? I’d rate it a 9 out of 10, and the build runs Eternal Lab with ease.

Molten Strike with leech is crazy powerful and one of the best all-around builds available in PoE able to do all content. I actually completed the storyline and got to mapping faster with this build than any other (with 0 deaths). While the clear speed isn’t top tier (I’d give it a 5 out of 10), the boss melting and survivability is top notch. Plus it’s just fun to watch everything melt while sucking your victims life away.

While I love skeletons, there no question Spectres are still exceptional for completing all content in the game. While players (like myself) are jumping on Melee Skeletons (as the new meta in 3.2) because they’re “new”, Spectres will always be a solid choice.

With the ascendancy changes to Hierophant, Totems are more powerful than ever. The most popular are either Freezing Pulse or Frostbolt because of their clear speed, however these builds have issues with the end-game bosses and are more for mapping and general clearing/leveling (but the FP build can down shaper). If you want a Totem build that melts bosses, can do all content in the game, but clears maps a little slower, you can go with Glacial Cascade Totems. Milky’s Righteous Fire Totems are also very powerful and fun for those who like totem builds.

Essence Drain is still going strong and is one of the best league starters around; it also does a very good job of clearing maps, but requires substantial investment to complete Guardians and Shaper.

Wanders (Kinetic Blast) come in second for speed farming and end-game mapping. People prefer Windripper for the magic find, but Kinetic Blast can clear faster than Tornado Shot, but it is not a boss killer. The Queenliness Wanderfinder is also a long-standing and classic wander guide.

Reave has replaced Sunder as the end-game melee speed farming skill because it has a wider strike radius than Sunder (and can thus kill faster). Most players start with Sunder and convert to Reave when they have upgraded/optimized their gear (around L75). Here’s the Champion Guide and Gladiator Guide.

Honorable Mention

Frost Blades has great clear speed and is fun, but survivability and single target damage can be a bit of a problem without expensive gear; but I list it here because it’s fun and a lot of people really enjoy Frost Blades (I also played it last league). The two recommended builds are Fiver’s Raider version and Reload’s Assassin version.

Lighty’s 2H RT Cyclone build is a classic loved by many, and very fun to play. However, to do end-game maps (T14+) and Shaper, etc. you really need an Atziri’s Disfavor, which costs more than 4 exalts, and that’s not even linked. Ahfack’s Crimson Cyclone is another great guide, but if you want to do Shaper, etc. you’ll need a Starforge and/or other extremely expensive gear.

There are definitely other great builds that could have made it on the list, but I think the above recommendations are solid for this league.

Each one of the above mentioned builds also works great as a starter or first build; they are fun, powerful, and capable of taking both new and veteran players alike to end-game. Additionally, each build is solid for SSF (solo self found) play as well.

I hope this list helps the PoE community; here’s to the continued success of Path of Exile and the fantastic job Grinding Gear Games has done with the game!

Warframe Review 2018 Introduction

Warframe is a sci-fi hybrid MMO/TPS (third-person shooter) gem. It’s extremely large and complex, yet very rewarding to play. Is has some of the best gameplay/combat I’ve seen, and the graphics are beautiful. More than that, the automatic “matching” system for bringing players together is very well designed and integrated into the game, allowing for both solo and team adventures.

The game is nearly five years old, and in this case, that is a positive thing because Warframe has been greatly refined across the board (instead of becoming stagnant like so many games do), and the difference between launch and the current release is astounding; a testament to a very well supported and evolved product by a dedicated team of developers. Warframe has become a work of art.

There is so much to this game, even those who have been playing for months (or years) may find the information within this review insightful and even helpful. With so many variations of play style, modding, and customization, Warframe really offers an endless sea of chaotic fun for those willing to dive in and enjoy.

Prepare for Combat!

Content & Warframes

First, a player must forget everything they think they know about other games when it comes to UI, play style, and the traditional TPS and/or MMOG experience. Warframe is truly a unique product; there’s nothing else like it. Patience is required to learn the UI, mechanics, and how all of the game features work. Warframe is complex and takes time to master.

One of the most important factors with Warframe is to understand players have just one character, and it’s always growing and can never be reset. Players don’t really “level their character”, instead they progress through the game by completing quests, level equipment (Warframes and weapons), and unlock planets and regions. The game really is all about farming; acquiring new frames, weapons, mods, companions, and more. It often takes weeks for new players to grasp the depth of the game, but for those who are willing to keep playing and learning, the reward is great. Diving into Warframe does remind me of diving into EVE Online for the first time. It’s going to be a long journey.

Contrary to popular belief, there really aren’t any aliens in Warframe. The Story revolves around an undisclosed future where technology and space travel paired with bio, energy, void, and other research has created this unique universe the player experiences through numerous avenues. The Orokin time is held as the “historic era” prior to the “warframe era”, which the player is now a part of. The game does an excellent job at explaining much about the universe of Warframe while still keeping numerous secrets, which will hopefully be exposed as the game continues to evolve. While the core storyline (through quests) does explain quite a bit, there is more mystery to the universe of this game than answers.

A recent poll showing the Top 10 preferred Warframes

Everything revolves around Warframes, the biotech engineered “fighting suits” a player uses to blast through the content. There are currently 34 frames available in the game, and many of them come in both vanilla and “prime” versions (which technically makes the count higher than 34 when it comes to leveling them up). Frames can be acquired by gathering and crafting all of the pieces, or purchased in the Market for “Plat” (which is the RMT currency). Players can switch between frames within their orbiter (ship) and define “loadouts” allows for differing variations of builds. The reason for this is one mission may require a frame that can stealth through certain areas where another requires a frame that provides more crowd control. There is no “master of all” Warframe. Some of the Warframes are impressive due to how unique they truly are, such as Octavia, which allows the player to create their own music-emanating disco ball which everyone in the squad can hear. It’s awesome. Each Warframe has 4 unique abilities unlocked as the frame gains levels (max level being 30). Veteran players have a collection of numerous buildouts ready to go for different mission types.

The Warframe loadout section is referred to as a Arsenal. From here, players can select their frame, primary, secondary, melee, companion, and gear configurations. A Loadout is the configuration of an Arsenal buildout, so if a player has a Rhino and Saryn frame, but both use completely different mods and weapons, the player can create a Loadout titled “Rhino” which has all the weapons, selected companion and gear they want to use with the Rhino. And when the player wants to switch to their Saryn build (which will have different primary, secondary, and melee weapons), they just select the saved Saryn loadout. Within each loadout, the player can define up to three Configurations of the frame. This is customization of the mods, supporting different gameplay (a configuration only impacts the mod layout of a Frame, but not the weapons). New players will only use the default “Config A”, but once a player becomes more familiar with the game and wants to create different play styles for a single frame, they will start building out new configurations to switch between. For example, a player may create a “Spore Build” configuration for their Saryn, and also a “Toxic Lash” build; each having a different mod setup supporting gameplay that focuses on the use of one ability more than another. I’ll dive into mods shortly since the mod system is quite complex and often overwhelming to new players.

DE kept the Ability Stats associated with frames fairly simple, which I think is a good design. Each Warframe has Armor, Energy, Health, Shield, and Spring Speed. The second set of stats are Duration, Efficiency, Range, and Strength. Unfortunately, the game does not provide a mouse-over explanation of these core stats, requiring players to look up exactly what Efficiency means (note it affects the energy cost of Warframe abilities). DE really needs to add this.

Weapons is where the game begins to get a bit more complex. Each Warframe setup has a Primary, Secondary and Melee weapon slot. While most players run all 3, some players prefer to run just 1 (because the others just don’t serve any purpose depending on the build). The current Primary and Secondary weapon types are: Rifles, Shotguns, Snipers, Bows and Launchers. Melee weapons include Blades, Claws, Polearms and Whips. Many weapons behave differently and there’s such a wide variety that the exploration of equipment to kill your targets is part of the fun of Warframe. Some players prefer burst rifles while others like toxic gas bows. With the combination of weapon types, behavior, and special passives, there’s something for everyone.

There are three core weapon damage types: Physical (Impact, Puncture, Slash), Elemental (Cold, Electricity, Heat, Toxin), and Combined (Blast, Corrosive, Gas, Magnetic, Radiation, Viral). There is also Void damage, but that’s for end-game players. The complexity comes when we start mixing elemental and combined damage types with Status Effects, of which there are many. This includes Impact (Knockback), Puncture (Weaken), Slash (Bleed), Cold (Freeze), Electricity (Chain Lightning), Heat (Ignite), Toxin (Poison), Blast (Knockdown), Corrosive (Corrode Armor), Gas (Poison Cloud), Magnetic (Disrupt), Radiation (Confusion), Viral (Virus – reduces max health). Weapons can also have a Multishot modifier added to them to fire more than one round at a time. Certain factions are more susceptible to one damage type over another; for example, Toxin does +50% more damage to Corpus, while Gas does -25% damage to Corpus, but +75% damage to Infested. A complete overview of damage and status can be found on the warframe wiki. At this time, Slash damage seems to be king, having the best impact on the widest variety of enemies.

Primary and Secondary weapon stats are: Accuracy, Critical (Chance/Multiplier), Fire Rate, Magazine, Noise, Punch Through, Reload, Status and Trigger. Augmenting weapons with Mods (covered below) can dramatically change the behavior and efficiency of a weapon, especially when it comes to critical and punch through. Trigger is how the weapon fires for each shot (single, semi, automatic, etc.). As with many games, Critical damage is usually king, delivering a devastating punch; but some weapons have great AoE with status effects, which can make up for not having crit. It all depends on the play style the player wants to embrace. I’ve been in games where a sniper was 1-shotting enemies left and right, but another player with an AoE melee weapon got more than double the kills by the end of the mission.

Melee weapon stats are: Attack Speed, Channeling Cost/Damage, Crit Chance/Mult, Damage Block, Leap/Spin Attack, Status, and Wall Attack (damage while jumping off a wall). Melee weapons also have combination moves (depending on the installed mod). This can change the play style quite a bit, enticing the player to leap into the air or slide on the ground. While the game really does empower players to engage in ranged combat with their primary and secondary weapons, melee can be the most devastating. A long-range crit Atterax build can clear an entire room before any ranged weapon can when it’s in the hands of the right player and frame.

Leveling up Ember and some weapons with my trusty Lecta (later replaced with Atterax).

There are two Level systems in Warframe. The first is that of Mastery Rank, which represent the overall progress level of your “account” and is directly related to unlocking and leveling new equipment (warframes, weapons, companions, archwings, etc). Mastery Rank affinity (experience) is provided as the player levels most any type of new equipment. This system is designed to entice players to try every weapon and Warframe in the game, and affinity for mastery is only rewarded when you level new equipment to 30 for the first time. If you forma/reset your equipment and re-level it, the affinity does not count towards your mastery. Once you’ve gained enough affinity to raise your Mastery level, you must pass a Mastery test. There are currently a total of 25 Mastery tests, and many of them are quite difficult (and hated by the community). If you fail a mastery test, you cannot take it again for 24 hours. If you pass a mastery test, you cannot pursue the next rank for 24 hours (even if you have the affinity). I am personally not a fan of this system as the game forces you to engage in very specific play styles (often puzzle jumping, etc.) that go far beyond what you would require to actually play the game; and if you cannot pass the test, you cannot access certain weapons and mods. At this time, no mods or items in the game require a mastery beyond 16, which is good; but getting to 16 is still an arduous task for most players. The good news is if you appear maxed on your Mastery Rank and fail your test, you still acquire affinity, so while a player feels stuck if they can’t pass a test, don’t worry – your affinity is still building, and once a test is completed, all of the affinity earned while “maxed” will continue to grow.

New players are unaware there is a way to practice mastery tests; just quick travel to Cephalon Simaris on any relay, turn right and you’ll see a wall lined with mastery test practice nodes. This is invaluable and once a player gets beyond Mastery 5, they should run the practice test prior to qualifying.

Equipment Rank is the other leveling system of the game. All equipment can be leveled from 0-30; this includes Warframes, weapons, companions (and support equipment), and archwings (including support equipment such as gun, etc.). The nice part about this system is you can use level 30 fully modded weapons on a level 0 frame to help powerlevel. Experienced players will often throw on a modded level 30 melee AoE weapon with a brand new warframe, primary and secondary weapon, and just run through a mission using their AoE melee (melting all of the enemies).

The Focus system is the final and end-game “alternative advancement” system available to players after they complete The Second Dream quest. There are five schools available for the player to pursue, each offering benefits to the Warframe, but mainly to the Operator. There’s Madurai (Offensive), Vazarin (Healer), Naramon (Melee), Unairu (Defensive), and Zenurik (Caster). Focus points are acquired by installing Focus Lenses specific to the schools on your equipment. For example, a player can put a Madurai lens on their Warframe, a Vazarin lens on their Primary, a Unairu on their Secondary, and a Zenurik on their Melee; this allows the player to farm focus for multiple schools at once. But focus can only be farmed when a player activates a focus node (which lasts for 60 seconds). While the focus node is active, kills by the player (not squad shared kills) will build focus and be awarded at the end of the 60-second window. I actually do not like the Focus system and think it’s poorly designed. DE has made a mistake by limiting the benefits provided to the Warframe and limited focus farming with the current node-based activation mechanic. It needs a complete overhaul.

The Orbiter is the player’s ship, central hub, and where everything operates from. The player will slowly build out their Orbiter as they complete quests in the game, adding new Segments, which include: Arsenal, Communications, Mods, Foundry, Landing Craft, Archwing, Kavat Incubator, Nutrio Incubator, Void Relic, and Personal Quarters. Players can also decorate/customize their orbiter and build/purchase new dropships (covered below).

The Operator is your Avatar outside of your Warframe, and the Operator “feature” isn’t unlocked until the player completes the Second Dream quest. Once unlocked, the player can move between Operator and Warframe mode, and the Operator is capable of dealing damage (and in some instances is required to kill certain enemies, such as Eidolons). Players can outfit the Operator and provide them with equipment to make them stronger and look different. This include Transference Suits, Armor, and Masks. Operators have the following skills: Void Beam, Void Blast, Void Dash, and Void Mode. Due to the unique nature of “jumping out of your warframe”, use of the Operator in most circumstances is solely strategic. For example a player can jump out of their Warframe and quickly void dash to a focus activation node, then jump back into their warframe, allowing for a much quicker action than if they were only using their frame. The game does a very good job of introducing the player to the Operator and its ability through the quest line, and by the time the Operator is made a viable option of gameplay, most players understand and know how/when to use him. The downside is most players just don’t use the Operator or its abilities; they want to focus solely on wreaking havoc with their Warframe.

The War Within was a fantastic quest.

Mods, Polarization & Endo

Now we get to the heart and soul of Warframe. Mods. I am creating this section solely to cover this core feature because of how in-depth, complex and confusing the system can be to new players. Mods are what you use to augment all of your equipment. They provide benefits in key areas such as increased health and power (for warframes), or increased slash damage (for weapons), or the ability for your companion to scoop up loot for you. The most confusing part about mods to new players is understanding they exist in a “repository” and are usable on any applicable target. For example, if you have a Vitality mod that you’ve increased the rank of, that single mod can be placed in multiple warframe loadouts. You do not need a different mod for each loadout; you just need one. This is a bit confusing because new players think when they “socket” a mod in a warframe or weapon, it’s “in there” and can’t be used elsewhere. What’s more confusing is the duplicate mod mechanism. For example, you could have 43 “vitality” mods that are rank 0, but only one that’s rank 3. When this happens, two vitality mods will show in inventory; one that’s level 3 and 42 (as seen by the stack number in the upper left) that are rank 0. Players sell duplicate mods for Endo (covered below), which is used to rank up the one mod that the player uses.

There are currently 842 mods in the game, not counting the unlimited variation of Riven mods. Mods have 9 attributes: Name, Drain/Polarity, Rank, Compatibility, Conclave Rating, Stack Count (how many you have), Aura/Stance indicator, and Rarity (Bronze: Common, Silver: Uncommon, Gold: Rare, Platinum: Legendary, and Crystal (Purple): Riven. Equipment has “mod slots” and “mod capacity”. The slots define the number of mods that can be installed. The capacity is the “total power limit” of the combined mods that are installed. Companions have 10 mod slots, Warframes have 10 (including an Exilus and aura slot), Melee weapons have 9 (including a stance slot), and every other weapon has 8 slots. By default, Warframes, companions and mods have a max capacity equivalent to their level (thus 30 being the max). However, the use of an Orokin Reactor or Orokin Catalyst (known as potatoes in the Warframe community) can double the mod capacity to 60. A player’s Mastery rank will also define the capacity of a starting mod, so if a new rifle in the hands of mastery rank 12 player would have 12 capacity available at rank 0. A rank 0 mod has a capacity based on its type. For example a Vitality mod is Vazarin (D) polarity, and at Rank 0 takes 2 capacity; however it can be raised to rank 10 which means a fully ranked Vitality will take 12 capacity. Now imagine needing to slot 8 of these. That would require a capacity of 96, which is un-achievable… without Polarity; which is how we fit high ranked high capacity mods in our equipment.

Understanding polarity is very important; this system allows players to customize their equipment to receive mods at half of the capacity cost. There are six polarity types, but only the first four are really used. They are: Madurai (V), Vazarin (D), Naramon (-), Zenurik (=), Unairu (R for certain melee stance mods) and Penjaga (Y for companion abilities). Most mod slots are unpolarized (meaning they are neutral and you receive no benefit or determent from putting a mod in the slot). However if you polarize a mod (for example, to Madurai – V) and then put a Madurai mod that has a capacity requirement of 16 into that slot, it now only takes 8. This is how you stack and ultimately double the capacity of your equipment. But it requires a forma to polarize, and each time you polarize a mod slot, your equipment reverts to a rank of 0. This means the player must re-level their warframe or weapon back to rank 30 in order to get back to max power. If you have to forma an item 4-5 times, that means you have to re-level it from 0-30 4-5 times. This is a huge time sink and requires the player to plan and know what they’re doing. Accidentally choosing the wrong polarity could prevent a specific build from being played, requiring the player to re-level just to change one polarization to meet a mod setup’s requirements. Forma can be crafted our purchased on the market for 35 plat for x3.

Aura mods raise the capacity of the frame, so where a potatoed warframe has a max capacity of 60, throwing in a max rank aura (Steel charge, for example) can raise that number to 78. This is how you build the most powerful warframes and weapons. Aura mods also provide great benefit to the frame with effects such as lowering the armor of nearby energy or increasing health regeneration.

Exilus mod slots are only available on Warframes and must be unlocked using an Exilus Adapter, which can be purchased from the market for 20p. They are also provided as a reward for certain quests and meeting the 150 and 450 daily tribute (play) milestones. The player can also buy the Adapter blueprints from Cephalon Simaris and Teshin. The blueprint can also be obtained from Invasions and Sorties (covered below). Rule of thumb is only Exilus a warframe you plan on playing for awhile.

There are also numerous mods that are only for specific Warframes, such as Larva Burst for Nidus, and Chilling Globe for Frost. These mods can completely change the overall play of a Warframe. Another great example is Iron Shrapnel for Rhino; it allows the player to explode their Iron Skin to inflict massive AoE knockdown and damage to those enemies unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity.

Details on polarity including a list of innately polarized weapons can be found here.

Endo is the mod leveling currency required for ranking up a mod. The first few ranks of any mod are quite cheap, but some mods are quite expensive to max out; for example, maxing Steel Fiber (an armor mod) to rank 10 is 38,400 endo, whereas maxing Augur Secrets (which can only go to Rank 5) only costs 930 Endo. Part of the gameplay of Warframe is collecting Endo throughout your adventures and slowly ranking up the mods you use the most. While Endo is provided as a reward for many missions, the most common way of obtaining it is to sell duplicate mods. This is covered in more detail below under Economy.

Mods also serve as the heart and soul of trading for the game. All mods are tradeable except those acquired through login reward (Primed Fury, Primed Vigor, Primed Shred). Selling and trading mods is also covered below under Economy.

Riven mods are the end-game and can be the most powerful mods available, each being specific for a particular weapon (e.g. you can only use a Latron mod in a Latron, not any other weapon). They are very hard to obtain, have random rolls (which can sometimes be detrimental), and the best ones can sell for as much as 15,000 plat, which translates to nearly $700 in USD – and yes, people buy them! A player can see how rare a Riven mod is by installing it in the proper weapon and looking at the “Riven Disposition” value, which ranks from 1-5. The higher the value, the rarer and more powerful the mod. At this time, Riven mods are only obtainable through trading and the final phase of Sortie missions.

Players can also Transmute mods, which combines 4 unranked mods for a chance of a rare mod. Players can guarantee the resulting mod is of a specific polarity by using Transmutation Cores, which are acquired by raising standing with Cephalon Simaris (covered below).

Gotta get my Nidus build refined!

Content (continued…)

Because of the beautiful graphics, Cosmetics are one of the most beloved features of Warframe; the underlying system allows for the application of multiple colors, attachments, skins, ship variations, and more. Most players are blown away when they go to Cetus for the first time and see dozens of other Warframes, many customized by people who have been playing the game for years – and some of them are quite impressive looking. Adjusting the appearance (or Physique) of a Warframe allows for custom colors (you can purchase additional palettes), helmet, skin, animation set, attachments, Syandana (cloak), and Regalia (insignia). Equipment has 5 color settings: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Accents and Energy. Energy is the most interesting because it changes the look of your frame’s main abilities; for example, having a blue color vs. red color can create a completely different visual result of a large AoE ability. Much like warframe configurations, the player can define 3 color/physique schemes per frame.

The game also features a Captura system, where players can acquire unique backgrounds and take beautifully processed scenes, some so good they can be made into wallpaper. Note the default key for screen capture is F6 and the images are stored under Pictures\Warframe.

The Cosmetics aspect of Warframe includes Decorations for the inside of the orbiter and the clan Dojo (covered below). Many players acquire and place pets, posters, sculptures and even sealed bio “segments” from different planets inside their orbiter. This includes custom event items such as glowing hearts for Valentine’s day or Christmas lights.

Warframe takes place within the Earth Solar System, starting the player with missions on our homeworld, albeit in the distant future. As the player progresses, they unlock junctions which connect planets and other locations within our solar system, venturing to Mars, Venus, Pluto, and other “new” discoveries such as the moving Kuva Fortress and Void Space. Players can also deploy extractors on fully-explored planets to engage passive resource collection.

The heart of the game revolves around adventuring through Missions spread throughout the solar system. PvE mission types are: Arena, Assassination, Assault, Capture, Defection, Defense, Excavation, Exterminate, Hijack, Infested Salvage, Interception, Junction, Mobile Defense, Pursuit, Recovery, Rescue, Rush, Sabotage, Spy, Survival and Trial. PvP mission types are: Duel, Solar Rail Conflict, Cephalon Capture, Annihilation, Team Annihilation, Lunaro. Each of these mission types have different requirements and overall play styles. Assassination requires the player to kill a specific target (a boss), which can often be quite difficult (depending on the level), while Interception requires the player (or squad) to capture and hold multiple communication relays at once. There is quite a bit of variation to the missions, with Survival and Defense being the most popular at leveling up equipment (note survival missions can technically go on forever, yet scale greatly). Many missions (that are a large area you must traverse) use a “segmented generation algorithm” for each area, causing a slight random variation for each location, which can be refreshing to ensure the player isn’t running the exact same level layout again and again; however some missions (such as Survival and Defense) often have the same layout each time.

Navigating the planets is quick and easy.

Every mission has a Destination Icon system that shows up in the main window and the minimap; these yellow, red and green icons lead players to points of interest, helping them navigate complex layouts or large mission areas. For the most part, the system works well, but there are issues with some icons showing, namely the extraction point (green) icon with a mission is complete. It is often covered by a yellow icon or simply does not show up. DE needs to refine this system further, especially focusing on the extraction icon, to make completing missions easier for players.

Relays are space stations located throughout the system and orbiting planets. They can be accessed like any mission, and are shared instances with other players, allowing for trade (for those who do not have access to a Dojo). There are very specific NPCs that can be found in relays, including all the major factions, where players can turn in objects for standing (varying depending on the faction) along with seeing the visual style of each factione (which is actually very cool to see). Players can also find Darvo’s Market here, a merchant that sells items at a discounted price (for plat). Cephalon Simaris is also located in relays and has Synthesis missions, allowing a player to build their standing and acquire blueprints and items only available from Simaris. The Simulacrum is also located in Relays; a virtual Arena where players can test buildouts by spawning numerous enemies of a specific level to see how they perform. This is a very cool feature allowing one to see if (for example) a corrosive build is more viable against one enemy type than, say, viral. It can also be used to test survivability of a frame build (by spawning high level monsters) without having to find out the hard way in missions. As mentioned above, players can practice Mastery Tests on a Relay as well.

Within the System Map, in addition to Missions (progressing through the planets), players have access to Quests, Alerts, Invasions, Syndicate Missions, Fissures and Sorties.

Quests truly serve as the heart of Warframe, guiding the player through the solar system, introducing them to new items, factions, and exploring what it means to be Tenno; and I will say, The Dream Within, The Second Dream and The War Within are exceptional quests complete with beautifully choreographed cinematics, explaining why the player is using a Warframe, who they are, and where they came from. It took me roughly 100 hours to unlock The Second Dream, which is the quest that opens the Focus system (explained below), and The War Within unlocks Sorties and the ability to acquire Riven Mods (which can be the most powerful mods in the game). There are also numerous other quests that provide access to other game mechanics, such as the Plains of Eidolon (bounties), or the Octavia Warframe.

Alerts are very important because they are the only missions that drop Nitain Extract, a key resource used in crafting warframes, weapons and other equipment. Alerts will also drop other important resources as well as skin blueprints and other rare items. For those who are serious about gathering resources in Warframe, it’s important to keep an eye on the Alert tracking website.

Invasions are augmented missions where you team up with either the Grineer or Corpus to work against a common enemy. The player must run at least 3 missions in an invasion (with the same side) to gain the rewards if their side wins.

Void Fissure Missions are required to open Void Relics, which are used to farm specific blueprints and other valuable gear. Think of a Void Relic as a locked treasure chest with a static loot table. Players can refine void relics (Exceptional, Flawless and Radiant) by spending Void Traces. Refining a relic increases the chance for the more rare drops from the relic to be rolled from the loot table. When in a Void Fissure mission, an item called reactant drops; players must pick up 10 of these to “crack” the relic open. Void Traces are rewarded when a relic is cracked open (6-30), and there is a limit on how many traces a character can stockpile (based on mastery rank). The requires players to spend their Void Traces or lose out on continuing to acquire them. This system is designed to be a restricting factor on refining relics, enticing players to go back to “low level” relics (for which the may already have all drops from) solely to acquire traces so they can refine a late-game relic for a chance at, for example, a rare blueprint. Void Relics come in four tiers: Lith (1), Meso (2), Neo (3), and Axi (4). The higher the tier, the rarer the relic. There are multiple variations of each tier, for example Lith A2, which rolls Forma, Paris Prime Lower Limb, Tigris Prime Stock, Braton Prime Receiver, Orthos Pime Blade, and Ballistica Prime Blueprint. Unrefined, the chance of getting the Blueprint is roughly 5%, but refined to exceptional, the chance raises to around 40%. So if a player wants to farm Galatine Prime (one of the best melee weapons in the game), they must farm Mesa G1 or Axi G1 relics to obtain the blueprint, and other relics for the blade and handle. This system is one of the key end-game farming mechanics of Warframe, and it’s fairly well designed.

Sorties are once a day end-game (and very difficult) multi-step missions, and the only way to acquire Riven Mods and Legendary Fusion Cores outside of trading. They only become available after the player has completed The War Within quest. The first phase is level 50-60 enemies, the second 65-80 and the third 80-100. Only built-out Warframes are capable of surviving all three phases (even with a squad) as the final phase enemies can easily one-shot many of the frames.

The Faction system of Warframe includes 5 core groups: Grineer, Corpus, Infested, Sentient and Orokin. There is also a subfaction system called Syndicates, which are similar to “grand companies” a player can side with and earn affinity (and title) for, which unlocks specific items/blueprints/gear. Each core syndicate has “friendly” standing with some, and is “hostile” to others. So if a player gains affinity with one syndicate, they may also gain positive affinity with that syndicate’s “friends” but also lose affinity with that syndicate’s enemies. It’s a connected web. Players gain value in Standing not only by completing Syndicate missions, but by also wearing the respective Sigil of a syndicate on their warframe. Once enough standing has been achieved, players can “offer” a collection of resources to achieve the next title, which unlocks rewards including blueprints and other items. When a player engages a Syndicate Alert (mission), there is the chance for up to 8 Medallions for that syndicate to drop in the area. These can be turned in for additional affinity. When a player becomes hostile with a Syndicate, Death Squads will often be sent out to interrupt otherwise normal missions (and if you’re in a squad with another player you will engage their death squad as well). Killing these squads gives the chance of dropping a specter blueprint of that respective type. Helping other party members kill Death Squads will not impact your standing with the originating Syndicate. A detailed overview of the Syndicates can be found here.

The Quills is an end-game faction system that requires the player to kill Eidolons. It’s the only way to unlock and use the Arcane Manager, which allows the crafting and registration of Arcane items to enhance a character.

Crafting is often overwhelming to new players because of the sheer volume of blueprints, resources and complexity of the Foundry. Players are also unaware of just what they can craft because there is so much. The core crafting categories are: Warframe, Primary, Secondary, Melee, Sentinel, Landing Craft, Appearance, Gear, Keys and Miscellaneous. The orbiter also has an Incubator, which is used to “grow” biological pets. Players can also craft new landing Craft: Liset, Mantis, Scimitar, and Xiphos. Crafting anything takes time; weapons usually take 12-24 hours, and warframes take 36 hours to complete (with the components taking 12h). While one can purchase many of the craftable Warframes and weapons from the market, many players opt to patiently gather the materials and wait to get that next great weapon or Warframe without spending real money.

A general consensus is: never spend plat to rush construction!

Craft, my beauties! CRAFT I SAY!

Your Landing Craft is really only a visual representation as you descend to a mission, however each landing craft has something called Air Support. These can be used during most missions, and are as follows: Liset – Override (Overrides Security), Mantis (Med Tower) – Health Regen, Scimitar (Carpet Bomb) – Air Strike, Xiphos (Sentry Turret) – Damage. People find the Liset to be the most useful; the damage and regen from the others just doesn’t really help much. However in the long run, players generally don’t use any Air Support. DE needs redesign landing craft features to make them more useful.

Companions are buddies that join you during your missions. Sentinels (which are robotic), Kubrows (dog-like creatures) and Kavats (lemur-like creatures) can be chosen, equipped with weapons and such, and can provide support in many different ways. Each companion type has their own set of mods; Sentinels are good at sucking up loot and freezing enemies, while Kubrows and Kavats are more fighting-centric animals. As a whole, Companions don’t do much damage; they provide more of a support role and can be modded to do things like unlock red chests and detect loot from a longer distance. They can be customized, and the biological companions require maintenance whereas the Sentinels do not.

Specters are a more robust and useful form of companion, allowing the player to summon them during a mission and define their Warframe and equipment layout. These guys can be very useful as a player can define a Specter that is perfect in supporting the play style they prefer. For example, the player can build out a Nidus specter that uses its Larva ability to execute crowd control (an excellent option for a player frame that’s melee). Specters are usually used when a player prefers to run solo, have another target that can distract enemies, and execute actions that help the player and their current frame’s style. The AI of Specters is also very good.

Gear is very important, especially for end-game. Players can equip health and energy regeneration items, mining lasers, fishing poles, specters and other useful components. One can also acquire an archwing segment allowing the build of archwing gear to use to fly around the Plains of Eidolon. This feature only uses the wings and not the weapons, but it makes all the difference in quickly navigating the plains.

Archwings are a different game mechanic, allowing the player to participate in 3D space and underwater combat. While this system is well-implemented in Warframe, it’s one of the least liked by the player base. People simply prefer being on the ground in their Warframe rather than flying around in space shooting in all directions. But Archwings are required for many missions in order to progress. An Archwing equipment buildout has Wings, a Ranged Weapon and a Melee weapon. They are leveled just like Warframe weapons, and the player can buy and craft different variations.

Travel throughout the solar system is very well-done. It’s easy to go anywhere, start a mission, team with other players, and jump straight into the game.

Players can define a Profile Glyph that is a little icon graphic (or avatar) representing them throughout the game. Some glyphs have even been created by players and implemented by DE. Many are unlocked by completing missions, others by redeeming codes, and the rest through purchase. Some are serious and dark looking while others are fun and comical. A complete overview of available Glyphs can be found here.

The Codex is an in-game database located in the player’s Orbiter containing information on nearly all aspects of the game. The player can also “build out” content in the Codex by scanning Enemies and Objects throughout the game. There is currently no reward for building out the codex; it’s just something players can enjoy or set personal goals for, but there is very useful information in the Codex that new players can study.

As you travel between planets and complete missions, you will come across Statues. Ever wonder what the red and blue “stars” you find are for? You can actually socket these stars in the statues to activate them for placement in your ship, or to sell for endo. To socket statues, go to the Mods interface and select Ayatan Treasures. Rotate the statute with the mouse and click on the empty sockets to place the stars.

The Plains of Eidolon at sunset.

Plains of Eidolon

The Plains of Eidolon (PoE) was released in October of 2017 as the first open world and expansive static map for the game. Cetus is the city hub located on Earth connected to PoE where players can initiate quests, take on bounties, purchase fishing and mining gear, and work on their faction standing (Ostron). PoE features day and night cycles, weather (rain), and while the map itself is static, the enemies that inhabit it are somewhat randomized each time the player enters the area. Night time is the most dangerous as the Goliath Eidolons are freely roaming, and there is no mistaking when they are near, their mechanical screeches filling the air with a terrifying echo. Fishing, Mining and Hunting were also introduced with PoE. Ultimately, the plains introduced a new play style to the game, giving the player much more of a real MMO feeling as they enter Cetus and see dozens (or more) of other players; it truly feels like a busy hub. The player can access PoE either by going through the double gates from Cetus, or directly selecting PoE from their orbiter. Much like missions, PoE is an open instance ripe for a squad.

Fishing is done with a spear where the player must first visually find the fish, aim, and launch their spear to hit and retrieve their prey. There are 13 types of fish of varying sizes, some only appearing in lakes and others in the ocean, and some require bait to draw out. Players can take caught fish back to Cetus to turn in for either standing or to be “cut up” for resource materials, which are required to build many PoE items (such as the Archwings for flying around PoE). Fishing in Warframe is much more fun and engaging than I’ve seen with most other games. While the quality of the spear influences the results of fishing, Resource Boosters will influence the number of fish that spawn in an area. However, the spear type does affect the damage to a target, some requiring more than one throw to retrieve.

Players can also engage in Mining, which requires finding ore (Red) or crystal (Blue) veins and then using a cutter to “draw” around the vein to extract the ore. The better the cutter, the more stable it is to draw and extract. An Advanced Nosam Cutter is also required to extract Sentirum and Nyth. All minerals can be refined and turned in for standing with Cetus, while other are required to build certain items. Some of the minerals are also required to create equipment for your Operator. While veins can be found randomly spread throughout the Plains, caves are often the best source of veins. It’s easiest to spot veins from a distance at night.

Bounties are really the bread and butter of PoE and the best way to gain standing with Ostron (the Cetus faction). Bounties are available through Konzu, come in different level difficulties with different loot reward tables, and can be run an unlimited number of times. The highest bounties currently have level 40-60 enemies and award more than 4,000 standing, while the entry-level bounties are level 5-15 and award roughly 1,000 standing. Bounties have phases, with the low level bounties having 3 and the high level bounties having 5. All phases must be completed in order for the bounty to be completed (for the final reward). Many of the phases have time limitations, others require defending specific points, and if the team doesn’t work together, the bounty can quickly fail. In addition to faction standing, Grinding bounties is a good way to get Kuva, Endo and other blueprints/item parts.

Incursions are random missions that occur during the daytime in PoE and can pop up at any time. This system is really designed to give those who are running around fishing and mining an occasional distraction of exterminating enemies or recovering a cache.

Numerous Caves are scattered throughout PoE; some contain items that can be logged in the Codex while others spawn good amounts of Ore and Crystals for mining. Some caves only open when a specific Incursion or Bounty is active. Once cave has been explored, it will show on the PoE Map for the player.

Eidolon Sentients are the monstrous and dangerous machines that roam PoE at night. There is no mistaking them, and taking them down usually requires a squad of end-game equipped players. The main Sentients are Teralysts, and players must use both their Warframe and Operator abilities to down them through four different phases. When a Teralyst is defeated, it drops Eidolon Shards and a mod. Players can also use Eidolon Lures to obtain additional Intact Sentient Cores and other high-level rewards. Some of these items can be converted to focus while others are traded for standing in Cetus. Killing Eidolons is the only way to obtain Sentient Cores, which are the only way to raise standing with The Quills.

Gameplay

Warframe is all about Combat, and to say it is very good is an understatement: the combat is fantastic. I would say it’s some of the most fun and engaging combat I’ve played in a FPS/TPS/MMO style game. Ranged with sniper rifles, close combat with large AoE melee, Warframe abilities, and the line of sight and distance capabilities of specific builds provides a wide variety of death dealing chaos at the player’s disposal. Strategy is a very important part as well – lining up enemies for the punchthrough, executing specific melee attacks, going stealth and placing that gaseous arrow shot in the right location; all of it counts, especially in higher level and more difficult missions. Add that to group play with completely different styles and what appears to be a simple battle can quickly grow out of control. It’s very difficult to go back to any MMO after playing Warframe because they are just so slow and cumbersome in comparison. Warframe is definitely in a league of its own when it comes to combat.

All Movement (non-archwing) is parkour in nature, allowing the player to bounce off walls, quickly leap between points, and scale vertical challenges that would otherwise be impossible. There are many locations in missions and the PoE where jumping into a specific area is “instant death” or “falling off” to an area that cannot be traversed. Instead of killing the player, the game just phases the player back to the point before they jumped into the wrong area. This is a very nice design, allowing for quick and crazy play while not caring if you miss a jump and fly down into an bottomless canyon. It’s fun, and that’s what counts.

When a player is killed, the Death system provides a 30 second window (if one is in a squad) where another squad member can revive them with no penalty. But if the player is not revived or playing solo, they will lose bonus affinity and be given the chance to revive with a small window of invulnerability. A player can only revive a limited number of times (~4) before the mission they are on is considered failed. This system is nice because it never takes from the player, it only limits the bonus affinity that can be earned.

Warframe features nearly 300 different Enemies, some being faction specific, others bosses, and even wildlife or robots; and there are multiple variations of these enemies, bringing the projected count in variation probably closer to 500-750. As mentioned above, the main enemy factions are Corpus, Grineer, and Infested. The player will encounter numerous variations of these core factions including more powerful versions of the low level nuisances, some with shields, others with rocket launchers, and the most annoying gigantic fireball knockback attacks. Enemies do have a “level”, which can be confusing since it’s separate from the mastery and equipment ranking system. At this time, the max level of enemies one can encounter in the game is 100.

The Reward system depends on what the player is doing. There is general looting from enemies which provides currency, resources, endo, mods, and the occasional blueprint. But if a player is running a specific mission, alert, sortie, or fissure, the rewards also come from the completion bonus for the mission.

The game currently features roughly 185 Achievements (called Challenges). Unfortunately, there is no real reward other than saying “cool! I did that!”. There are console and steam-specific achievements (which may have other rewards) but I only play the PC version (not on Steam) so I’m unfamiliar with any rewards that may be provided for, example, defeating an Eidolon Teralyst.

PvP is the only feature in Warframe that I have not played, so I can’t really comment on it.

This place doesn’t look very friendly…

Economy

This brings us to the different types of Currency in the game. Credits are the generic currency that drop in-game and are awarded for the completion of missions, etc. Players must spend credits to buy some items from the Market or blueprints from the Clan Energy Labs. Credits are also a money sink when trading items, some mods costing as much as $1,000,000 as a “trade fee” in addition to plat. While Warframe is free to play, and technically one is able to play the game in full without spending a penny of real money, many items require Platinum (plat) to obtain. Plat is most easily acquired by spending real money, but players can trade valuable items (mods, blueprints, etc.) for plat. Endo is the core currency for leveling up mods, and is acquired as mission/bounty rewards, drops from enemies and selling duplicate mods. Void Traces are another currency that are required to refine Void Relics. They are awarded upon completing Void Relic missions. We also have Orokin Ducats, which are used to trade with Baro Ki’Teer, a Void Trader that appears every two weeks for a 48 hour window in the Concourse section of Relays. Players can acquire Ducats by selling Prime blueprints and weapon parts. So, if one has an extra Akbolto Prime Receiver, they can sell it to Baro for 100 ducats. Baro sells rare items and mods, such as Primed Continuity (for 100k credits and 350 Ducats), or augmented weapons such as a Primsa Gorgon (for 50k credits and 600 Ducats). This system allows players to offload extra prime parts and blueprints for the chance to acquire other end-game items and cosmetics they may be looking for.

New players ask what should they spend plat on? This depends on how much money one is willing to spend. It’s commonly agreed within the community that plat should first be spent on Orokin Catalysts (to increase the mod capacity of warframes and equipment) and then Forma (to polarize mod slots). I personally like purchasing the Prime Packs because they provide a Prime Warframe, Weapons, and Plat for what I consider to be a good deal. Many players make the mistake of purchasing a Warframe through the Market when they could buy the complete set for cheaper from Players and just wait the 48 hours (12 hours for components, then 36 for the frame) to craft it (as long as they have the materials). One rule of thumb is always check the player market for an expensive item you are considering buying for Plat on the Market to ensure you can’t get it cheaper from other players (often you can). Another standard is to wait for the plat discounts. Every 24 hours (4pm daily PST), when the player logs in, they can roll their Daily Tribute. This is a click to open random reward that’s provided, enticing people to log in. Every once and awhile plat discounts are provided, and can be 25%, 50% and 75%. Many players wait until the 75% discount and then purchase the $200 pack of 4300 plat for $50. Ultimately, I like to financially support companies like DE. Spending real money supports the game to make it better, and DE is doing a great job.

Trading is an important part of the game as many specific mods are required for certain Warframe and weapon builds. Many mods can be difficult (or nearly impossible) to acquire by simply playing and farming. Unfortunately, Warframe does not include an in-game Auction House (which I believe is a mistake and one of the game’s weaknesses). Instead, players use a 3rd party website called the Warframe Market to buy and sell mods. You can find most any tradeable item on this site except for Riven Mods. If you want to trade Riven Mods, you must use another website called Warframe Trader. Whey there are two sites for handling what should only be one is unknown, but the real issue is that DE is failing to implement a real and useful auction system within the game. Yes, players can set up trading “stores” at relays, but nobody really uses that. It’s a poor and dated design that’s really useless. When a player uses one of the 3rd party trading sites, it’s easy to contact the seller, and trading is usually executed through the Dojo (the seller invites the buyer) and the actual trade itself (UI included) is pretty easy to use.

The in-game Market is where a player can browse and buy most anything, mainly for Plat. There are some items that sell solely for credits, but those are usually low-level new player weapons just so a player can learn the basics of using the market. Warframes, Weapons, Equipment, Companions, Bundles, are available, and nearly every Warframe can be purchased on the market with Plat. There are also Warframe and Weapon packs; some of which are pretty cool. While the Market has hundreds of items to choose from, many end-game items are not available through the market (such as a Soma Prime automatic rifle). Don’t want to do the crazy and mind-numbing puzzle missions to acquire the Octavia Warframe blueprints? Just buy Octavia from the Market for 225 plat (or ~$11.25 USD). The current ratio of Plat to Real Money (USD) is 1 plat = $0.05. Orokin Reactors (Potatoes) are 20p and Forma (used for Polarization) cost 35p (for 3) and are held as the most common (and useful) things to spend plat on. There are color packs, cosmetic bundles and other enticing things for those who have the money to spend, and also many blueprints available that can be purchased for either Credits or Plat, such as the landing craft blueprints; but the player must then acquire the support pieces (through farming in-game). So a player could spend 150p to get a new Mantis Landing Craft, or buy the Blueprint for 35k credits, and then try to farm the components; however they are very difficult to find.

Players can also purchase and Gift items from the market. So if you have a friend you want to give a Warframe, bundle, companion or weapon to, you can purchase it from the Market for plat and send it to their account as a gift.

The market also sells TennoGen items. These are community-created skins (from Steam) for weapons that players can buy, and the proceeds of these purchases are split between the creator and DE. There’s some pretty cool designs.

This brings us to the question of whether or not Warframe is Pay to Win. No, it is not, but buying plat makes a huge difference in how quickly you can progress through the game, unlock new content, and participate in end-game missions. I personally have no problem purchasing Prime Packs and some Warframes that are very difficult to farm.

Got the money? The market has it!

Technical

Warframe is a very technically complex game, not only relative to content and mechanics, but relative to the client, patching system, servers and hosting, connectivity, and data. Gamers who have not been involved in large scale game development simply do not understand what it takes to create, produce, maintain and evolve a product like this. Having said that, my hat is off to DE. I think they have done a fantastic job of evolving the game, working with the community, and steering Warframe in the right direction. It is a technical masterpiece they should be proud of, even with the limited issues players have encountered.

The games uses hybrid client/server hosting mechanism that links players sharing the same mission in a squad together through a chosen host. Only the relays and Cetus use dedicated hosted servers. Because of this hybrid client-hosting infrastructure, desynchronization can be an issue. When a host’s connection turns poor (bad ping or packet loss) it can cause the group to experience difficulties and even result in the loss of a host and migration. The auto-migration system works fairly well, and has saved numerous missions when the hosting member times out or loses connection. Because the game uses client-based hosting, Lag and Latency are common, which can cause the enemies to bug out. There is a “Matchmaking Ping Limit” value that can be set under Gameplay Options, but I’ve found even with setting that value to (for example) 100, the latency issues still happen just as often. My guess is this issue is associated with packet loss rather than ping; so if the hosting player has bad internet with packet loss, the ping could be (for example) ~90, but 20% dropped packets will ensure everyone in the party has issues. DE really needs to add a “Matchmaking Acceptable Packet Loss” value (of say 0%, 5% and 10%) to compensate for this issue. Ultimately, the game plays very well and the majority of my missions (90%) experience no lag or latency issues whatsoever.

The Graphics of Warframe are stunning and beautiful. Cloth mechanics, vibrant colors, volumetric & diffused lighting, crisp and efficient rendering, especially in PoE where the distance rendering is excellently done. Particle effects, ragdoll physics. You name it. Top notch work here.

The User Interface is unique to Warframe. It’s well-designed and while it takes some time to learn, it’s easy to navigate and works great for both the PC and Console platforms.

The Music is fairly passive and not very memorable, but represents the missions and environments nicely. Where the game really shines is with the Sound FX, which are excellent; each shot from your weapon, the screams of enemies, generalized sounds of equipment use and other audibles bring the world to life. My personal favorite is the terrifying screech of Eidolons during night time on the Plains.

The Options settings are well-designed, allowing the player to customize their client experience as best as possible; this includes Display, Audio, Interface, Chat, Gameplay and Controls.

There are Bugs; the game occasionally hangs, the PoE door has disappeared and caused my Warframe to fall into a world of nothing, latency can cause the enemies to behave in a twitchy and sporadic fashion, and there have been random disconnects, but for the most part, the game is solid and DE often provides daily updates and bug fixes.

I really like how quests, news and other details (all real time) update and display on your Orbiter’s bridge.

Community

The Warframe community is very good; people are helpful in-game, patient with new players, and almost always willing to help. I remember watching my wife play the game and she had issues making a hard jump; another member of her squad (mastery 23 or so) was patient and gave her advice on how to do it. When you die in a squad, other squad members almost always rush to revive you. This is the culture of Warframe: to work together and support each other, and it’s a good thing.

Clans are the guilds of Warframe, and not only do they function as a mechanism to bring people together, they are also the only way to gain access to labs, where members can purchase blueprints and other unique items. Dojos function as the headquarters for the clan, can be decorated and used as a central hub for trading with other players. Clans can also claim and provide access to Dark Sectors, which are missions that provide buffs (such as better drops or experience); however I believe next to the community, the most important feature of Clans are the Labs, where unique blueprints (only found via Clans) can be researched and made available to members. There are 5 tiers of Clan (with member capacity): Ghost (10), Shadow (30), Storm (100), Mountain (300) and Moon (1,000). A clan can upgrade their tier by building Barracks (and expanding). Clans can also form Alliances, which shares a chat channel and can support up to 4,000 members (or 4 Moon Clans) total. The Alliance channel is great, as any questions are quickly answered by other experienced players, and players can quickly form squads of friends and allies. There are well over 1,000,000 Clans in Warframe, so finding one can be a bit of a search (to meet the type of people you want to play with). Reddit’s Warframe Clan Finder is a good place to start.

Squads are the player formed parties and can have a maximum of 4 members total. Most squads are auto-created through public set matchmaking, but players can also form squads with their clanmates and friends. The squad system is very well designed, quickly bringing players together to annihilate enemies and complete missions.

One feature many people seem unaware of is Warframe has a built-in squad voice chat system. Simply hold down the C key and talk, and if you have a mic, everyone in the squad can hear you!

The Chat system is fairly standard: Squad, Clan, Alliance, Region, Recruiting and Trading. As mentioned, the community is usually very helpful, and new players can ask questions and for help in the Recruiting channel if they are not a member of a Clan.

There is currently no Ticketing or bug-reporting system built into the client (which is unfortunate). Players must go to the DE ZenDesk support Ticketing system via the website to submit a ticket.

Warframe did have Raids in the game, but they were removed for various reasons. DE has stated they are working on a new version of raids, which will allow 8-member squads, and expect to release the new raiding system sometime this year (2018).

Being a member of a large, active clan is great!

End Game

The end-game of Warframe is all about Grinding. This includes farming blueprints, raising faction, leveling equipment to raise mastery, polarizing equipment, and gathering resources to build items to level up. The variation in gameplay for each frame and the different weapons entices players to pursue trying everything they can. A Sybaris Prime behaves completely differently than, say, a Soma Prime; and each has a completely different mod loadout. To properly “fully” load just one weapon or Warframe can often require 4-5 formas; and that doesn’t even include maxing the rank of end-game mods (which costs a ton of endo and takes a lot of time). This means a player will need to re-level a single weapon multiple times just to get to the polarity layout they need to maximize its efficiency – and then, that weapon may work exceptionally for 80% of the missions, but the other 20% of the missions may require another weapon – or frame – altogether. I’ve played and maxed out 21 frames, and so far my favorite “go to” frame for nearly all missions is Nidus. I use Sybaris Prime as primary, Pox as secondary, and Hirudo as the melee with the 60% melee Aura. I can solo every mission I’ve come across, except the last phase Sortie is tough because of the 1-shot mechanics and it’s hard to get a life link or undying up in time to survive. For the last Sortie (level 80-100), Rhino is an excellent option due to its Iron Skin. But what it comes down to is no one frame or buildout works for everything. I’ll get a bit tired of Nidus and switch over to my Mesa build; while it doesn’t have the survivability, it kills faster than anything else and is simply a “blast” to play.

Survival and Defense missions are the most popular for leveling up equipment. Players seem to prefer Akkad (Survival) on Eris, and Hydron (Defense) on Sedna as the top two leveling locations, but re-running these missions again and again can become quite tedious, causing players to take a break and do Bounties, Fissures, or just help friends out. People will also run missions in the Void to obtain Argon Crystals, which are required to craft numerous weapons.

Relic Farming is the most popular activity second to running Survival missions solely for the purpose of collecting blueprints and weapon components. Players will also run generic fissures to build up their Void currency so they can refine their higher level relics for a chance at a better drop. Here is a link to the list of Rewards and their associated Relics, and a list of Relic Drop Locations. First, look at the reward list and determine what items you want to farm, and then look up which relics they require and where you can get them.

Bounties in the PoE are probably the third most popular activity. I personally enjoy PoE; it’s refreshing to be outside rather than stuck in ships and close quarter outdoor maps all the time. However, PoE brings its own challenges with ships and other flying enemies targeting you and attacking not only from the ground, but the sky. A bounty can also quickly go wrong (at the high levels) if the squad doesn’t work together. There’s nothing worse than failing the final phase of a bounty because the squad can’t find all of the stashes.

Focus Farming is also popular. Running Equinox solo with a sleep build and a long-range Melee weapon (such as Atterax) is currently the best way to farm focus. Here is a video covering Focus Farming with Equinox.

Infiltrating the Kuva Fortress.

Strengths

I believe the strongest points of Warframe are:

The Combat is the best feature of Warframe. If you love to shoot, slice and kill things with numerous unique abilities, this game is for you. And the volume of enemies one can kill in short order is quite satisfying paired with the screams of ones victims. Another point is Warframe empowers you; a player feels very strong and shreds enemies left and right – unlike other games where survival is a difficult task, in Warframe, you are the threat and you are the dangerous one. Players love that.

The diversity in play style through different frame, weapon and mod combinations is fantastic and fun.

The Quests are very well designed and can be very immersive.

The Graphics are stunning and beautiful, and yes; this impacts the overall enjoyment of the game.

Customization of a Warframe, Lander and Orbiter’s appearance (as well as decorating the interior of the Orbiter) is very well-done and allows players to express the way they want to look.

The Community and automatic pairing with other players in Squads is fantastic. You can start Warframe and be playing within 30 seconds with a full squad doing pretty much whatever you would like. It’s also very easy to make new friends and keep in touch with them.

You can play this game solo, if you want. And there is no forced PvP. By default, Warframe is a collaborative game.

Weaknesses

While I would recommend Warframe to most gamers, there are a few issues that impact enjoyment of the game:

The Complexity of Warframe is the biggest turn off to new players; but it’s hard to avoid given the scope and scale of the game. I only list this as a factual hurdle that new people must clear in order to really enjoy the game – but once they do, it’s worth the time!

Repetition is a factor for those who have been playing awhile and are engaged in daily routines. Even with the best of games, it can become mind-numbing to constantly run survival missions, bounties, and others in order to level up gear. After awhile the repetition of these actions can become boring and tedious.

I personally detest Mastery Tests. They aren’t fun at all. Forcing players to engage in jumping puzzles and other tests that have nothing to do with how they will play the game is wholly unnecessary; and it does block players from acquiring end-game weapons and mods unless they are able to master these things they would rather soon forget entirely.

Archwing missions are a cool feature to be considered on their own, but the reality is most players do not want to engage in 3D space battle or fly underwater. Warframe is a ground-based fighting game. Using the wings in PoE is great, but there’s a reason almost all the Archwing missions are very difficult for player to find squads to do. People just don’t like doing them.

There’s just something that doesn’t settle right with me regarding the Focus system. The majority of Focus features are related to Operator abilities, and this game is about playing as a Warframe, not an Operator. I think DE needs to execute a redux of the Focus system to provide not only a slightly different experience for gathering focus, but also providing rewards that make the Warframe the main benefactor rather than the Operator, which is almost never used.

This brings us to the Operator system. It’s another feature of the game the majority of players really don’t care about. Sure, operator mechanics are necessary to take down certain bosses, and some players enjoy using them in combat, but like the Archwing, most want to focus on Warframe combat, not jumping out of their Warframe and hitting targets with bursts of energy.

Warframe really needs an in-game Auction House system. Relying on 3rd party trading sites is problematic, takes players out of the game, and is wholly unnecessary. DE needs to add this feature.

Conclusion

Warframe is one of the best games I’ve played in a long time. It has evolved into a technical work of art, and for those of you itching to play something that’s sci-fi themed, TPS and hybrid MMO-based where you annihilate enemies and truly feel powerful, there’s no better choice. On top of that, the future of Warframe looks great; DE is constantly enhancing and adjusting the game, fixing problems, and adding new content. With more than 30 million player accounts created since its launch, there’s no question Warframe will be around and continue to grow for years to come. What are you waiting for, Tenno?

Careful, Tenno!

]]>https://www.requnix.com/warframe-review-2018/feed3Path of Exile 3.1 Abyss Best Starter Buildshttps://www.requnix.com/path-of-exile-3-1-best-starter-builds
https://www.requnix.com/path-of-exile-3-1-best-starter-builds#commentsWed, 06 Dec 2017 17:30:50 +0000http://www.requnix.com/?p=4091Path of Exile is on its way to becoming the most successful ARPG in the industry, especially with success of the “Fall of Oriath” expansion paired with the Xbox console and China market releases. PoE is growing by leaps and bounds, and both veteran and new players alike are trying to decide which build to run as their new league starters for the upcoming “War for the Atlas” version 3.1 launch with the “Abyss” challenge league on December 8th, 2017. War for the Atlas features 10 new skill gems (Such as Volley, Volatile Dead, and Bodyswap), 32 new maps, numerous new uniques, a rework to damage reflection (yes!), and a number of yet unannounced changes and fixes.

Introduction

Each of the below 15 recommended builds should easily take both new and veteran players to end-game in the upcoming 3.1 release and the Abyss challenge league.

Before we begin, Path of Building is a very important tool to have when planning and testing builds before they’re played in-game. Additionally, make sure you have NeverSink’s Loot Filter installed.

Balanced leveling, clearing speed and boss killing with good survival.

Entry to and good performance in end-game map farming for items and currency.

Even though some of the builds covered below are shaper capable, I do not qualify the need to do Uber Izaro, Atziri, or Guardians as a “requirement”. Getting to maps and farming while surviving is key.

For many players, play style is important. Some people hate totems while others only play totem builds. Some like Melee while others love bow builds. The diversity of PoE is one of its greatest features, but also one of the most complex aspects of the game. This guide keeps things fairly simple. There are other more powerful starting builds that are more complex (and sometimes powerful), but they generally require respecing, farming specific items/uniques/item rolls, and other factors — but the reality is most of these builds don’t provide enough of an advantage to the core requirements to outperform the below recommendations.

The Best Starter Builds

The recommended best starting builds have evolved since the 3.0 release; Dark Pact has become a very popular option, the changes to Spectres make it a lot more fun (and easy), and the balance changes made since the Fall of Oriath expansion have allowed other builds to enter the top ladder for not only general play, but SSF and Hardcore as well. The below list is compiled from personal experience (including SSF), statistical data (including recent race results), community (Reddit, etc.), and player feedback; not only from over the years, but with a focus on what has been working for players since the 3.0 release. Here we go!

There’s a reason Sunder nearly almost always dominates league and race ladders. It’s the go-to skill for leveling quickly, is fairly easy to gear for, and does very well at end-game. It’s also fun for those who like to play a melee build vs. ranged/spell/totem. Once you get multistrike with a great weapon, Sunder is a blast. A Sunder build can also transition into other melee builds as well, which makes it easier to respec. While it did receive a nerf to single-target damage in 3.1, it should still be solid for melee players.

Essence Drain is beginner and veteran friendly, and it’s even better in 3.0 and 3.1 due to the Contagion AoE buff. The starting version of ED can easily begin mapping with minimal equipment requirements (just a 4L works fine), it’s very good at boss killing, and has excellent survivability. It can also have top tier clear speed if played right. There are generally two variations, the Trickster MoM (Mind Over Matter) build (above), and the Occultist ED build. Trickster generally does more damage, but doesn’t have the survivability of Occultist. Both are great variations of the best DoT skill in the game. Dsfarblarwaggle posted a great ED Trickster 3.1 starter guide on YouTube.

Raise Spectre builds have become very popular with the recent changes to the skill. Great survivability, high damage, and a playstyle that’s more relaxed than other builds because the monsters target your little buddies more often than you. It’s also a favorite among SSF players since it scales well and is good at farming, even with limited gear.

Ancestral Warchief is another oldie but goodie top choice. It’s powerful, easy to scale (just craft 2H axes), has great survivability (swap out Concentrated Effect for AoE when doing Izaro, etc), is one of the best lab runners in the game, and is fun. When you find or craft a high DPS 2H axe, it’s simply magical. It is also Shaper viable. The downside? It doesn’t clear as quickly as other builds. The most powerful version of the build is the Facebreaker version, but that’s a choice to pursue after a “first build”.

Summon Raging Spirit (SRS) is one of the best starting builds that also scales well; and the rogue nature of your little skulls flying off screen like homing missiles and killing whatever they find is always enjoyable. Plus this skill can start to be used at the very beginning of the game. The downside to a SRS build is with bosses that attack and move so quickly that it’s hard to cast your SRS while running around. One solution is to swap in a Spell Totem for such circumstances (Izaro is a notorious PITA for SRS builds without top notch cast speed).

Dark Pact Totems have also become one of the most powerful totem builds in the game. Great for clearing and bossing, they are very well-balanced and have great survivablity; numerous DP totem builds made it into the top HC ladders.

You can’t go wrong with a 2H RT (Resolute Technique) Cyclone build, especially with the recent fix to the Cyclone skill (now ensuring players don’t get stuck on objects). Cyclone builds are tanky, fun to play, and awesome with the right items that enhance blood and gore. Plus it’s nice to not have to worry about getting stunned. For those of you who are interested in an alternative to the RT Cyclone “norm” you can also try the Electro Cyclone, which is also a great build that has more than 1M DPS with the proper gear.

Freezing Pulse Totems are awesome; a crit-based cold build that has great survivability and can shatter every enemy on the entire screen in just a second or two. They also do a reasonable job against bosses (due to crit). This build is one of the best map farming builds out there and can take a character to level 100. If you want to see FP Totems in action, check out this video.

Summon Raging Spirit (SRS) is one of the best starting builds that also scales well, and the rogue nature of your little skulls flying off screen like homing missiles and killing whatever they find is always enjoyable. Plus this skill can start to be used at the very beginning of the game. There are 3 core flavors: Baron, Elemental (in the initial link), and Combination (note this guide from 2.4 is viable for 3.0). Since a Baron helmet may be difficult to get early league (but can have the best damage), I recommend either Elemental or the Combination to start with. The advantage of the Elemental is the damage is higher, where the Combination build has better survival (it’s just not as quick at mapping and bossing). The downside to a SRS build is with bosses that attack and move so quickly that it’s hard to cast your SRS while running around. One solution is to swap in a Spell Totem for such circumstances (Izaro is a notorious PITA for SRS builds without top notch cast speed).

Ethereal Knives (EK) with Ring of Blades is another build that, even after the threshold gem nerf from 10 projectiles to 5, does a great job of hammering through maps. While taking down bosses is a bit slower than before, progress to end-game is very quick, and gear upgrades have a substantial impact, making it a favorite among veteran players.

Righteous Fire Totems paired with Searing Bond pretty much melts everything. It is Shaper viable, but doesn’t clear as fast as other builds. This build is incredibly easy to get up and running and it can do nearly all end-game content. Once you get Soul Mantle (which is a common unique), it’s pure melty magic. Clearing maps, Bosses and Zerg Breaches; this build does it all. I was quite surprised at how much I liked this build, and it performed exceptionally as a league starter for balanced clearing, boss killing and survival.

Frostbolt Totems have amazing clear speed and can 1-shot the entire screen. The only real disadvantage is the single-target damage can be quite lacking – but the build is fun, powerful, and can take the character to level 100 for those who want to farm shaped maps. If you want to see FB Totems in action, check out this video. Lifting also released a 4-totem Hierophant version of this build; the complete guide can be found here.

Glacial Cascade Mines are extremely powerful. Numerous players who followed ZiggyD’s guide after the launch of 3.0 have reported it’s one of the best builds they have ever played. I personally found it quite clunky, but the damage is quite impressive. For those who don’t mind the play style, it’s rock-solid. Many players also transition from GC Mines into Kinetic Blast Mines later on.

Flameblast Totems (also known as Pizzasticks or Pizzablast) are a great common league starter, annihilating enemies and burning them to a cinder. The build also works beautifully with just 4 links, and doesn’t require any custom crafted gear. The only downside is the “spin up” time of casting; if not synchronized properly with certain bosses and situations, the chance of dying raises substantially.

The Frostblade Raider is also a very popular starting build. It scales well and performs great at end-game; especially now that one can purchase the Fight for Survival unique threshold jewel in Act 5. The major downside of Frostblades is single-target damage early on, but once you pass a threshold, it can melt bosses. But prior to that time, fighting bosses and some high hit rares can be tedious.

There are definitely other great starter builds that could have made it on this top 15, but I wanted to provide what I had personal experience with, as well as recommendations from the PoE community (through numerous threads and discussions).

Each one of the above mentioned builds work great as a starter; they are fun, powerful, and capable of taking both new and veteran players alike to end-game. Additionally, each build is solid for SSF (solo self found) play as well.

I hope this list helps the PoE community; here’s to the upcoming 3.1 launch and the fantastic job Grinding Gear Games has done with Path of Exile!

A next generation ARPG with MMO elements, Mu Legend focuses on Combat, Character Growth and Partying.

Content7.5

Mechanics9

Gameplay7.5

Community2.5

Technical4

Strengths

Fun Combat & Gameplay

Solid Character Growth

Group Play

Weaknesses

Community Issues (Chat, Language barriers)

Server Instability & Lag/Desync

Webzen

6.1

Final Rating

One year ago, I wrote a review on the Closed Beta Test of Mu Legend. I was thoroughly impressed with the game in its closed beta state. Mu Legend (MuL) has now released as open beta, and there are numerous changes and enhancements that have been made over the past year. Now that the game is in open beta, there are no more character wipes, and Webzen is taking money for subscriptions and selling in-game merchandise. This has become the new norm; to “soft launch” a game while calling it Beta and selling the game/services/items to players, claiming any glitches or issues relative to the state of the game are associated with being in beta.

Even though MuL has great potential, the OBT of MuL has been a royal disaster. The core of the game is solid, combat is fun, and character development is enjoyable. The problem is Webzen. The company is completely disconnected from the US market and has dropped the ball on so many common sense factors tied to bug fixes, performance, economy and community issues that it’s outright embarrassing and reflects sheer incompetence. Their inability to use proper English (showing they don’t have an established American team handling the US announcements) is even more indicative of their laziness in hiring the right people to properly manage the US region. Botting and gold farming ruined the game within the first two weeks, and one quick glance at Reddit or the Mu Legend Forums paired with the decreasing player base on the servers shows there is a growing discontent for MuL by the players; namely at how Webzen completely failed to anticipate these issues and refused to fix key bugs reported in CBT1; all of which I will cover within this review. Below is a timeline of recent events:

Nov 7, 2017: Release of OBT.

Nov 14, 2017: Disabled Player Trading and in-game Mail.

Nov 14,2017: Added a Captcha both in the launcher and in pop-up version in the game.

Nov 21, 2017: Disabled the Trade Broker.

Nov 23, 2017: Redesigned the Captcha for the launcher. Potentially removed the in-game Captcha (haven’t seen it in a few days).

Nov 24, 2017: When logging in this morning I received a “fail to get auth key” message from the launcher. Found out my account has been blocked. I’ve done some research and apparently Webzen has blocked numerous legitimate player accounts.

Nov 28, 2017: Webzen posts an Open Letter to Users including statements like “We have been very pleased with the success of MU Legend’s launch” and “we won’t let those annoyances waste our common pleasure to play and to produce MU Legend”. They also say they don’t know when trading will be reactivated. So, they are very pleased with the disastrous launch of MuL, and believe their love of the IP will make everything ok, all while admitting to no mistakes. They also blame the connection issues to their Florida servers on players and ISPs. I couldn’t make this stuff up. Webzen isn’t just a bad company, they’re delusional.

Webzen handling the disastrous launch of OBT.

These changes show Webzen merely reacting to the very problems they created while restricting the majority of players (probably 98%) while trying to address the 2% problem (which they should have known would happen prior to launch). The servers are still unstable nearly three weeks after release, actively hanging and disconnecting players while providing a 200+ ping for most players in America. Yesterday morning, I couldn’t even log in because the Launcher CAPTCHA tells me I can’t authenticate; researching this reveals that my account has been temporarily blocked. I’ve never had that happen before, and my guess is it’s due to the use of PingZapper, which simply re-routes the packets in a more efficient manner (it took my average 200ms ping and lowered it to 65ms). PingZapper does nothing to breach the Webzen Terms of Service, so the block associated with this is completely uncalled for; but the fact I have to use PingZapper when running Gigabit fiber reveals an even more flawed infrastructure and server hosting mistake on Webzen’s part. Ultimately, this is a Korean game by a Korean company that is using Korean standards that do not work here in the United States. But it doesn’t mean that MuL isn’t worth playing (when you can play it). There is still a long way to go until the game is in “full release” mode; 3 more continents, the new Spellbinder class, open-world farming content and bosses, new items, and max level pushed to 100. That is all coming, but who knows when. The big question is can this extra content save the game?

The original Mu Online was released in October of 2003. It had millions of players and became one of the most popular ARPGs in the world. Rumor of Mu2 began as early as 2004, but development of the next Mu title didn’t really begin until 2009. Mu Legend was first showcased in 2011. It uses the Unreal 3 engine and entered Global Closed Beta Teast 1 (CBT1) on October 25, 2016, and Open Beta (OBT) on November 7, 2017.

Webzen launched CBT2 roughly 6 months ago, and while I was excited to try the game after my great experience with CBT1, I was stunned to find they only made localization changes. No bug fixes or any real enhancements from CBT1 were included. This was very disappointing, and I (along with many others who played CBT1) did not participate in CBT2.

I played multiple classes to end-game (Level 65) during CBT1 and achieved a top-50 rank in OBT within the first week. I’ve played through all of the content including the Mythic dungeons, Epic dungeons, and acquired end-game gear.

Unfortunately, Mu Legend has become a warning for all other game development companies on what not to do when you release a game to the public.

Time for some Zen from the Vault!

Content, Characters & Classes

MuL doesn’t offer any revolutionary or ground breaking features. Instead, the game has refined and evolved many of the core features that make ARPGs enjoyable. The game feels like an evolved mix of Torchlight 2, Diablo 3 and Marvel Heroes. This is a good thing. On top of that, MuL takes place in a shard-based mini-MMOG world. It is nice to run around and see other players on quests and forming parties in order to run dungeons on higher difficulties. This is something missing from the current ARPG kings like D3 and Path of Exile.

The Story is about being sent back in time to save the world, evil energy, demons, portals, wars and alliances. But the reality is most players grind past it and don’t really pay attention to the story line; but it can be quite enjoyable as your character and the NPCs swear and think aloud to figure things out. The story also drives the leveling experience throughout multiple regions, which is actually well-done. The player will stop the undead summoning of a witch queen, destroy a titan, invade a sky temple, and enter a gooey underworld of life-sucking energy all while facing numerous bosses with custom mechanics.

The World consists of 7 continents (Evova, Duelden, Ohrdor, Litenberg | Noria, Lorencia, Alhard) with the last 3 currently being unavailable in OBT. As with other ARPGs, the zone types range from grassy plains to rocky mountains and snowy encampments. I like the diversity of the different areas and the nasty creatures that inhabit them, and I really like the design of the different regions; the monsters blend in nicely, the environments flow well, and it’s a lot of fun to see other players adventuring through the world with you.

Choose your class!

The game has a total of 5 Classes. First we have the Dark Lord, which is essentially a tank support class. The Blader is a barbarian-like class with the traditional “spin to win” cyclone skill. War Mages are fire and elemental ranged attackers. Whisperers are the rangers (bows or guns), and the Spellbinder is a telekinetic mind-controller (but is not yet playable in Open Beta). The classes seem fairly well balanced and the top characters area good mix, showing each class is capable of competing for the top rankings.

Max Level in OBT is 65. Rumor has it they will change this to 100 soon (once the new continents are released). The game also has a Soul Level, which is similar to the Paragon system of Diablo 3. 80% of your experience from combat goes to raise your Soul Level. It is not currently known what the soul level cap (if any) is, but numerous players are quickly approaching 200. For each Soul Level you obtain, you get a point to spend in the Soul Box. The different categories are: Attack (Attack, Penetration, Critical Rate, Critical Damage), Defense (Defense, Evasion, Health and CC Reduction), Support (HP Recovery, MP Recovery, Cooldown Reduction and MP Cost Reduction), and Misc (Movement Speed, Money, Exp, and Magic Sight). Magic Sight is Item Find %. Leveling your character is fun and the progression flows very well.

During CBT1, MuL endorsed playing and leveling multiple characters through the Account Level bonuses (combined soul levels), but it appears this feature has been removed in OBT. Not sure why as it provides incentive to level up multiple characters.

The Stats in MuL haven been simplified since CBT1, broken down into Attack and Defense. This includes Attack speed, accuracy, critical rate, damage and defense penetration. Defense is Max HP, evasion, Shield block, CC time reduction and all damage reduction. There is also MP and secondary (such as cool-down reduction). Resistances were removed from CBT and replaced with type damage and reduction; the different types are: Plant, Insect, Beast, Humanoid, Undead, Demon, Mutant, Magic and Building.

MuL has a core stat called Combat Power (CP) which is a numeric representation of your character’s overall combat prowess. Think of it as a derivative DPS value. I like the system because you truly see your character’s power growing as you progress, even when you’re at max level. CP is also used when looking for parties and trying to find others who are strong enough to handle the content you’re pursuing. In CBT1 a fresh level 65 had around 100k-120k, and the top players in the game had around 220k. The difference between 100k and 200k is staggering, so growing your CP just by 5k makes a difference you can really feel when playing the game. In OBT a fresh level 65 only has around 90k CP, and obtaining 140k or higher takes a lot longer than it did in CBT, but I think that’s a good thing. The difference between 110k-120k is quite noticeable. A little more than two weeks after launch, some of the most powerful characters have more than 200k CP.

Each class has 14 class-specific Skills. This includes 6 weapon skills (3 for 1h weapons and 3 for 2h weapons) and 14 class skills. There are also 9 expert skills (which can be put into 3 unlocked slots) that provide strong passive bonuses and include devastating skill attacks. When a character is created, the player is presented with one of two “Class Tactics” they can choose from; this can be confusing as a player may think this is a static choice that will provide a different outcome of skills. It does not. It just determines what weapon your new character will start with (1h vs 2h) and you can switch weapon types at any time. As skills are used, Crest Sockets unlock. Players can then equip crests within the skill sockets for benefits such as cooldown time -5% or extra attack damage +3%. Players can also find and use custom crest drops that can provide additional enhancements beyond the normal crests, such as attack damage +6%. This is a good design because it allows the game to augment and enhance core skills beyond their standard template.

Quests in MuL lead the player through the storyline and world content while also serving as the core method of leveling up. They come in three flavors: Gold (story), Blue (side) and Pink (timed for the zone). There really isn’t anything special or different about the quests in MuL compared to other ARPGs; most are “Go here” and “Kill 12 of X” or “Pick up # Urns”. But, the quest markers, flow, rewards, and overall questing experience feels solid, fun and smooth.

There are also Daily Quests once you reach max level, which involve running the mythic version of dungeons. If you complete these quests, you are rewarded with daily quest tokens. 25 tokens can be traded for a single piece of mythic gear. Technically, dailies also include the Duty Room instances (such as the Labyrinth or Garden – defined below). Dailies reset at 11pm PST.

A feature called Subjugation is also available, something very few players are aware of. When you press ESC and go to the Growth Guide, you can click on a daily entry and pay either Redzen or Bound Redzen to auto-complete a specific dungeon or mission (not epics though) with 60% of the reward. This is interesting and allows players to auto-complete these missions and/or dungeons (including rifts). This does not provide any experience, but it provides 60% of the rewards. This is useful if you log in 5 minutes prior to the daily reset and don’t have time to run everything; better to get 60% rewards than 0%.

Items follow the norm for other ARPGs. Each character has 3 inventory tabs (up to 5 with platinum subscription) with 24 slots on each tab. Each item takes up 1 slot. I like how much space is given at the start so a character doesn’t have to worry about an overflowing inventory until later. Items come in six flavors: Common (white), Uncommon (green), Rare (blue), Legendary (green blue), Ancient (yellow), Mythical (orange), and Set (purple). There is also indication of a Unique item type (higher than Set), but I don’t think it’s currently in OBT. The game allows the player to socket items, place gems in those sockets, and enchant items to a + stage (e.g. +7 chest armor). Character equipment follows the traditional Helmet, Chest, Pants, 1H, 2H, Earring, Necklace, Ring, etc. There is also a slot for wings (discussed below) and a costume (which provides visual aesthetics and bonuses). When you find a Rare or higher item, it’s Unidentified. You must spend money and gems to identify it (which rolls the stats), and it will always sell to a vendor for more Zen than the ID cost. The advantage to selling non-ID’d items on the Trade Broker (usually Legendary or higher) is players can ID it to roll the stats. It would be nice to have an “identify all” option within inventory since right now you have to manually click on each item.

Consumables usually come in the form of potions to regenerate health. There are also damage and resistance potions that can be consumed and crafted as well (some last 5m, others 30m). There are also XP and other bonus potions that can be purchased from the Legend shop.

Item Repair is a part of the game and more of a minor annoyance money sink than anything else. Equipped items have durability and cost Zen to repair once the durability gets low. The game would have been perfectly fine without gear durability.

Each town/city has a Storage container the player can use and pay Zen to expand in size. Items in storage are shared between all characters on an account, but players cannot put currency into storage; only items. This means currency is not shared between characters, but you can mail currency to other characters.

Crafting items is very similar to Diablo 3.

The Crafting system is very similar to Diablo 3 and it is critically important at end-game. Characters automatically receive access to crafting recipes as they level up, unlike in CBT where recipes dropped (it appears all dropped recipes have been removed from the game). Weapons, Armor, Jewels, Soul Stones, Items can be dismantled (salvaged) to obtain materials such as Ore, Dust and Newk. Many recipes also require Gems and unique crafting materials only dropped by bosses. Players can craft two types of items: Equipment and Consumables. End-game gear requires unique crafting drops from the epic dungeons. I found the crafting system to work well while leveling up and was able to craft a number of legendary items at 65 that were quite helpful. The only issue is it’s far too difficult to get the materials to craft a single mythic item (one will often get a drop or buy from the Auction House before they have enough materials to craft their own mythic item). And even if you do craft one, you can often get stats that are so bad, another is required.

Players can Enchant items, which allows for changing (for example) a base chest piece to a +1 chest piece. This process uses Jewels of Bliss and Zen. Up to +3 there’s no chance of failure, but after +3 you can lose a level if it’s not successful, and after +7 the item can be destroyed. I am not a fan of systems like this,which ensure players will lose time, energy and money all to RNG. Black Desert Online (which is also a Korean game) has a similar system, and many people quit the game out of frustration of not being able to upgrade their gear. Characters can also reroll one implicit value of an item at the enchanter in a fashion similar to Diablo 3. This allows characters to replace stats (such as HP recovery) with something more useful, such as attack or cooldown reduction.

Artifacts are similar to skill gems from Diablo 3. You craft them and grow them by running Lupa’s Labyrinth (covered below). There are three core categories: Round, Pentagonal and Shield. There are 10 of each, and only one of each type can be equipped (currently in OBT only one from the round category can be equipped, and the other 2 slots will be opened in the future). Equipped Artifacts enhance your characters through bonuses such as increased attack speed per level (stacking), increased defense, auras and more. Players can swap artifacts at any time, which allows for switching from one artifact to another before a boss fight. Artifacts are raised in level by running Lupa’s Labyrinth (covered below). Players can also use the Alchemy Merchant to dismantle high level artifacts for soul stones (which can be used to craft unique jewels to socket in items).

Wings are a big part of the game. They provide bonuses to the character, visually change how the character looks, and also give an indication of how powerful the character is. Wings are evolved through the enchanter and require stones that can be acquired through drops from the Endless Tower (discussed below).

MuL has Pets and they come in two flavors: Summoned and Comrade. Summoned pets won’t fight for you, but they visually follow you around and provide bonuses associated with combat (such as mutant damage, hit points, etc. depending on the level and pet type). Comrade pets act like Summoned pets except they aren’t visually seen and have bonuses associated with drops (such as more Zen), but the player can register up to 4 of them (the slots are unlocked with Zen). Pets are leveled up by registering (consuming) a pet as a material and then using evolution stones. In CBT1 pets had a max level of 5; we don’t know the max level on OBT. The pet system is very confusing to new players because the only way to receive points (used to level up a pet) is to release other pets (get rid of them). This is a counter-intuitive and poorly designed system. Additionally, pet drops are ultra rare (requiring most people to buy them with Redzen). I’ve had one pet drop between two level 65 characters with soul levels in the 80’s.

Rifts are random dungeons similar to rifts from D3. They can contain pylons (augmenting attack, defense, lightning bolts, etc.), treasure goblins/pixies (that can drop extra loot), and random elite/boss mobs. A rift always matches the level of the character (or highest level in a party), so as a player progresses through the world, they enter the rifts they stumble across to get extra experience, currency, and items. The limiting factor is a character can only enter rifts a total of 7 times each day (as a Platinum subscriber). As players complete rifts on the different continents, the rifts can go into Overdrive for 10 minutes. When rifts are in overdrive on a continent, players can enter those rifts without their 10 a day counter decreasing (e.g. they become free rifts) and the player that triggers the overdrive receives double attack and defense for the 10-minute window. At the end of a rift, characters get to roll on one of four cards that provide item rewards that can include legendary gear. I like this system because during leveling, if the boss doesn’t drop anything good, the character still has a chance to get something really good depending on their card of choice and final rift clearing score (based on speed, etc). Once overdrive is complete, an Invasion begins. When an invasion starts, a portal appears somewhere on the continent where the invasion was triggered. A timer counts down and three pillars must be defended by all players that can make it. If at least one of the pillars survives the time (10 minutes, I believe), the invasion boss appears, and it takes a lot of players to take it down. Once dead, the player is rewarded with up to four chests depending on their participation level. These chests can provide end-game loot, including mythical items.

Transportation between cities, towns and continents is easy. The player has a town portal device which allows instant transportation to the main town on the current continent or the central town for the game world (Ohrdor). There are also a number of Mounts in the game including wolves, horses and full-scale dragons. Players are awarded their first mount through the quest line, providing a 50% movement bonus, but must buy other mounts through the legacy store.

Looks like I need to run Rifts, Blood Castle and Endless tower!

Economy

There are two Subscription levels: Gold and Platinum. For a 30-day subscription, Gold costs 500 Redzen ($5) and Platinum costs 1000 Redzen ($10). Gold provides additional inventory, remote teleport, mail, and storage, and increases trade broker item registration and lowers the selling fee. Platinum allows for remote dismantlement, remote shop (sell/repair), and numerous enhancements such as additional inventory, attack, soul exp gain, uncommon item drop rift entries and more. It’s my opinion that playing this game as a Platinum subscriber is the only way to go, and well worth the $10/mo fee for those who plan on sticking around.

There are three types of Currency. Zen (Gold), Magic Gems, and Guild Contribution points. Zen is the core currency used across the board. Magic gems are used to ID items, Craft items, Enchant items, and Add Jewel Slots. There is not a vendor or use for Guild Contribution points as of yet, but rumor has it when the harbor is introduced, there will be guild vendors where you can spend the points.

There are also Daily Rewards for logging in and playing, usually in the form of Gems and Bound Redzen.

MuL features Trade Brokers (Auction House) that allow players to buy and sell items using either Zen or Redzen, a currency that can be purchased with real money. Items sold for Zen have a surcharge, so it’s important to define a value that has a high probability of selling the item since the surcharge is not refunded if the item doesn’t sell. The auction system currently feels a bit like the old Diablo 3 auction house (which was a complete failure). It will be interesting to see if Webzen can balance the trader to the point where MuL doesn’t fall into the same trading pit of failure that D3 did.

The game also has a Bound Redzen currency, but it is very misleading as the mouseover information states “Can be used at Redzen shop just like normal Redzen” but you quickly find out you can use it only for very limited purchases. Webzen wants people to spend real money on this game.

The Legacy Store is where players can purchase in-game items for real money (Redzen). This includes costumes, wings, mounts, resurrection stones, pets and more. The problem with item purchases in the store is many of the good things people would like to buy are all timed purchases, so the player is forced to re-purchase (and re-spend) the money again and again. In essence, people spend real money to rent costumes. This approach will not work well at all in the United States. I certainly won’t be spending money to rent a costume for 3, 7 or 30 days.

Now it’s time to talk about the Founder Packs (which were only available before OBT) and the complete disaster Webzen created by using obscure 3rd party payment gateways that hardly anyone here in the US uses (even going so far as to driving people to retailers to purchase a game card!). On top of that, the items we got in the Founder’s pack were 1-time use items! So those awesome wings can only be put on one character. I regret my purchase and will certainly never buy any founder’s pack from Webzen again.

One question many people ask is Mu Legend Pay to Win? Yes. Because you cause use real money to buy end-game items from the Trade Broker. A brand new 65 could spend $100 and buy top tier gear using Redzen whereas it would take weeks (or longer) for a player to acquire the Zen (or direct drops) by focusing solely on internal gameplay (even with a subscription). Yes, players must first sell these end-game items via the Broker, and no, the items aren’t available for sale through the Legacy Store, but it does give an unfair advantage to anyone willing to shell out money. Also, Set (and Unique, which are not in the game yet) items cannot currently be sold on the Broker; they must be ground in epic dungeons. But even with this limitation, a player can spend real money to obtain a full set of Mythic gear (which can be better than set depending on a character’s class and configuration). Once OBT releases the new PvP content, this is going to be an even bigger issue where those who spend $1000 can afford to buy the most expensive gear in the game, giving them a distinct advantage over others.

$10 to rent a costume that provides 5% HP and 5% attack for 30 days. Definitely not a fan of that…

Gameplay

The Combat of MuL is fluid and fun. Damage numbers (with crits), flying bodies (with physics) and telegraphed boss attacks make for an interactive experience. There is a big problem with the boss attack telegraphs inaccurately representing the area of attack, often resulting in hard hits to the character when they should not (usually tied to latency). This issue is probably the most serious gameplay bug in the game (next to disconnects), and it existed a year ago in CBT. Ultimately, it is a lot of fun to gather dozens of targets together and destroy them with hard-hitting attacks only to send bodies flying through the air. The combat is quite satisfying and the character leveling experience is one of the best parts of the game. Orbs also drop during combat, especially with bosses. These can provide temporary mini buffs (such as +5% attack speed) when a character runs over and automatically consumes them.

Death causes items to lose durability, but there is no experience loss (which I think is a very good thing). There are Resurrection Stones of Life that allow one to resurrect on the spot at full health; these can be found in treasure cubes, or purchased through the Legacy Store (100 for 3,000 Redzen, or $30) . Certain dungeons and mechanics don’t allow for non-stone resurrection (or the character will lose an entry instance). In the Labyrinth, if the character dies, unless they use a stone, they are ejected (but can run it an unlimited amount of times). One can always resurrect at point in a Mythic dungeon (even at the boss). For Epic dungeons, point resurrection isn’t allowed at the final boss (but prior to that it’s allowed) and characters can only use a stone up to 5 times before they are ejected. For daily dungeons like the Garden, it’s similar to the Labyrinth; if you die, you can only resurrect outside of the instance, losing the entry point.

Monsters come in three flavors: Normal, Elite and Boss. Rumor has it there will be Open World Bosses with the release of the remaining continents (although we have Invasion bosses now). Mob density is very good and there is no limit to the number of mobs you can gather up or hit at once. Monsters that are “pulled” too far from their spawn point will return to their point of origin, but only in the open world whereas monsters in dungeons will follow you nonstop. Monster Auras are a key part to the game and combat. There are 40 in total including Cold, Skin, Swamp Ghost, Fiery Chain, Meteor, Attack and Healing. Auras directly impact all of the mobs within their radius. Some of the auras (such as Swamp Ghost and Skin) either last too long or take too long to punch though. Players must be especially careful when running the lab as a large group of Water Ghost (inflicts damage on its killer) mobs can 1-shot a character.

Treasure drops are well-balanced during leveling. Zen (gold) mixed with items for dismantling and progression along with unique drops and Jewels of Bless (the core enchantment currency) make for good loot. But once you get to end-game and have all ancient gear, obtaining Mythical and Set items turns into a royal nightmare because you can only get them (with a reasonable chance) from epic dungeons (which you can only run 2 of each day). This becomes very repetitive and in my opinion boring very quickly (forcing players to raid in groups, an old mechanic that newer games have learned they shouldn’t require). MuL needs some means of obtaining Mythic and Set gear outside of Epic dungeons; I hope they fix this with the release of the new content. Dungeon bosses drop Treasure Cubes, which can be opened once for free, or up to 2 additional times for the price of Zen. This is a reasonable money sink and can often provide good gear. Yes, mythic boss cubes can drop Mythic items (not set), but the probability is so low, players can easily go through more than 100 cubes and never see a mythic item; but you can sure buy them for Redzen! And in the rare instance a mythic or set item drops, it’s often for another class. So the drop system up to ancient is solid, but after that, it’s tedious.

I like the Ranking system, which shows the top players in the game by the following categories: Character (Combat Power, Soul Level, Zen, and Magic Gems), Mythic and Epic dungeon clear speeds, and Mission Maps (Endless Tower, AI Arena, etc.). At the time of writing this review, on my server (Anilata) the highest CP is roughly 200 and the highest completed floor for the tower (solo) is 50.

The game currently has 286 Achievements available including categories for Character, Item, Each Continent, Room of Duty, Combat, and Quests. They are very standard, such as reach soul level 100, or equip a mythic item. Some of these achievements allowed for specific Titles to be displayed over a character’s name. Others offered rewards delivered through mail.

I admit… I haven’t really focused on Achievements…

Technical

OBT features 4 US/Americas Servers, and they are hosted by Quadranet in Miami, Florida.I average ~200ms to the servers with my Gigabit Fiber, where I get 15-20ms pings to the Path of Exile servers. Every other game I play in the US is well under 100ms in ping (usually ~30ms). However when I use PingZapper, latency issues nearly disappear and I average around 65ms. This shows the default tunneling to the American server hosting location is very poor for west coast players (and most others as I’ve discovered). On top of that, we have the critical problem where the Americas servers are a melting pot of multiple cultures; as such, many players can’t even communicate due to language barriers. This is another key issue showing very little foresight by Webzen to properly plan and launch servers for specific regions (keeping in mind the language and culture differences). Another issue is when you receive a disconnect in a dungeon with limited runs, it kicks you out and you lose access. This is especially bad in Epic dungeons, which can only be run once per day. And it’s still happening left and right.

The game has been plagued with Server Stability Issues since launch, and even now, more than two weeks after OBT went live, I’ll often hang (without a disconnect message) and need to manually exit the game. A large percentage of bug reports and subreddit posts relate to the constant disconnection problems. I regularly run daily epic dungeons and lose connection (or lag out) only to lose my daily access. Failing to implement a “reconnect” option for people who get kicked out to daily epics was a huge oversight that has screwed many players in OBT.

Lag is a big problem, especially when fighting bosses. I regularly encounter rubber banding and insta-death tied to the game having desync issues; and it’s even worse in groups.

The Graphics of MuL are good; WebZen did a great job with the textures, colors, environmentals and combination of region themes and strange critters. Shadows, Water, Ice (with multiple layers), Reflections and Depth of region bring the world to life in a very well-balanced display of immersion. The only thing missing from this game is a day/night cycle, but the reason for omitting such a feature may be to ensure zones consistently have the same look and feel when players are in them. The ragdoll physics are solid as the broken bodies of your slain enemies fly through the air and even impact on world objects or fall off cliffs. Animations are smooth and fluid while particles are average.

I was very surprised to find I really liked the Music. While it’s not at the same level as the timeless pieces from Diablo, I would say MuL has the best ARPG music I’ve heard next to Diablo (and some pieces from Path of Exile). The Sound FX are pretty much average for an ARPG.

Webzen screwed up the Friends list by not sharing it on an account, so when you create a new character, you have to manually rebuild the list. Another disappointing factor is back in CBT when a friend found an awesome item (such as a mythic), it would broadcast that find to all of their friends. This was a great community notification system that enticed communication and congratulations. They removed this from OBT. Not sure why as it brought people together.

Community

Guilds cost $5M zen to form and allow the creation of emblems from a collection of merged templates. There is a built-in search feature where players can apply for guilds that are accepting applications. The interface is clean and easy to use (good design). When looking for members, guilds can present themselves as focused on one of four categories: Social, Monster Hunt, PvP and Character Growth. Players can have up to 10 applications “active” at any one time. Guilds grow in level through contribution and offer a number of enhancement features through Shrines. The Guild Master can build these shrine expansions with the right amount of materials and Zen, which can be deposited into guild storage. Members can also donate Zen to the guild to help build the shrine expansions. The guild system revolves around shrines, which provide benefits to members. Shrines can be built by the guild master and cost a large amount of zen and have high item requirements. Some shrines increase the soul experience while others will increase the overall drop of Zen. Guilds also acquire a percentage of Zen for each drop and level up (the current max level is 15) based on members gaining experience. Members can find and donate Trophy Coins, which awards a box of magic gems; but it doesn’t do anything for the guild. Guilds also have shared storage which can be used to share items between members.

The Party system is fairly standard, but functions well relative to zoning and waiting for other members. The biggest problem is the inability to kick party members, so if somebody goes AFK, the whole party needs to be disbanded and reformed; of course this doesn’t work in an epic dungeon, and numerous players quickly find their epic dungeon run a bust because one or more players go AFK in the middle of the run. Webzen really needs to add a vote kick and/or party leader kick feature. Another issue is players die a lot more to lag issues in parties than not, enticing players to run solo.

Bots were rampant, which was apparent by the top clear dungeon times, 3rd party sites selling Zen and other factors. This shows the Guardian system doesn’t work – just like it didn’t in Closed Beta. Gold Spammers also took over chat channels, and reporting them didn’t have any impact (I saw many spammers standing in the same place doing their thing all day long). One would think a $250M+ company with previous experience dealing with these issues would have some back-end systems put into place to address and solve these problems. But instead of planning for these issues, Webzen reacted by disabling key features (such as in-game mail, trading, and the trade broker) for all players. They also added a CAPTCHA to the launcher and even had an in-game CAPTCHA pop up during gameplay (which was insane). And all of this was done right before Thanksgiving weekend (a prime gaming time in the US). A move like this hurts the average player much more than it does gold sellers. I’ve never known any game to implement such invasive and restrictive features to solve a problem like this, only showing further the the team at Webzen didn’t properly plan on addressing the botting/gold selling problems any intelligent gamer knew would happen; and this makes no sense given the company has been building and running online games for more than a decade. There’s some seriously stupid people at Webzen in charge of the design and launch of MuL.

The Chat System is fairly standard, allowing for guild, zone, trade, party and other generalized system chat including tab customization to control which channels are displayed. The problem is chat completely broken in the US. You can’t use numerous standard characters (such as +,-,*, :, etc.), and the game will often just “eat” a message, forcing players to re-type their message, or speak with only letters and basic ?/!, etc. Another point is this chat system forces players to speak “stupid” and without punctuation. Try typing like this for a week or two you’ll see it impacts your overall grammatical typing habits. Webzen is truly creating dumb poorly communicating players by enforcing the chat system as it stands. The fact this issue has been in the game since CBT1 shows how completely incompetent and oblivious Webzen is relative to addressing the most basic yet critical features of community and communication. Shame on them. There is no excuse for this at all, and the restrictive chat system is reason enough to quit this game.

There is also a Ticketing system built into the game, but many players (myself included) waited more than a week for simple ticket submissions to be addressed; and you can’t respond or re-open tickets once they are “handled”. I had a ticket that should have easily been addressed, yet a Webzen rep lazily blew it off with no real explanation, and there was nothing I could do (no response, no re-open request, etc.). Once again, Webzen is failing to support the paying players or have the staff necessary to support the game; and while one may argue “it’s open beta”, when a company sells services and takes money from players, there’s a certain level of support expected. At this time, it is not provided.

3… 2… 1… FIGHT!

End Game

End game is the most important part of any ARPG, and it begins when a player hits max level (65 in OBT). It’s all about raising soul level and acquiring better gear, including wing upgrades and enchantments, and the Hall of Duty becomes a second home to a max-level character. While there’s talk of open-world bosses in future releases, the Hall really is where all the end-game action is (save Mythic dungeon runs, covered below). First, we have Fabrice’s Garden, an instanced garden-like dungeon where pets drop. Next we have the Endless Tower, a rising platform that refills with monsters with each level of progression, getting harder and harder the higher it goes. This is where players get get the crystals to exchange for wing growth stones. The Blood Castle is where you get Jewels of Bless and Magic Gems by killing a boss that rises from a coffin; the reward being better the quicker it can be completed. The Magic Gem Mine is full of Magic Gems, and Luery’s Secret Vault is packed full of Zen (gold). And finally, Lupa’s Labyrinth is where you level up Artifacts. Lupas is also held as the best place to farm for soul experience. Competitive players who are looking to quickly grow their soul level at max level often put all of their skill points into experience bonuses and run the labyrinth nonstop. Ace of Spades made a good video explaining the most efficient way to run the Labyrinth.

Mythic Dungeons are the current end-game farming zones that can be run an unlimited number of times. There’s Heath Mine, Sky Temple and Pit of Nightmares. These dungeons are where players want to go to farm Zen, Jewels and Ancient gear (Mythic is possible, but ultra rare). Farming on Mythic 1 is usually the quickest and most efficient, but more powerful characters can farm on higher settings to get more Zen and Ancient (with potential mythic) item drops.

There are two Epic Dungeons, and each can be run once a day. The first is Dragon’s Haven, which is the easier of the two. It features three bosses and fairly standard mechanics; the end-boss isn’t too bad as long as the party knows to jump through the purple wall of death. Next we have Sanctum of the Dragon Knights, and the end-game boss is much more difficult than Dragon’s Haven, featuring a shared damage and instant-death mechanic. Epic dungeons have 5 difficulty levels, however the first level is already quite difficult for players even with 120k-140k CP. The issue with epic dungeons is they are really old-school raids, and forced upon the players if they want to pursue set gear. I’m already bored of the Epic dungeons as it’s always the same fights again and again. Some people like this, but I’ve never been a fan of static raids. Webzen had the opportunity to do something different here, and they missed the mark. Another issue is bosses (at least in Epic dungeons) will continue to target and attack dead characters. This often makes it impossible to resurrect key party members.

The game does become quite Repetitive in its current state. Once you hit 65, you do dailies, and either run Mythics (Mine, Sky, or Pit), or the Labyrinth… again… and again… and again. That’s about all there is to do right now. Some people really enjoy the repetition (players are already 180+ soul level) but I personally find it tedious. Another issue is you can’t really farm end-game gear; you can only really get mythic and set items from epic dungeons (which you can run once a day), and the statistical chance of a mythic dropping from a mythic dungeon is so low, it’s just not enticing (one player opened 200 mythic dungeon cubes and didn’t get a single mythic item). I’ve seen only one mythic item drop from a mythic dungeon and I’ve run them hundreds of times. It’s fairly easy to get ancient gear, but after that, it becomes tedious. I believe the game is missing the “fun item farming” aspect that so many others have (such as PoE, D3, Grim Dawn) where amazing items can drop just by playing the game; in MuL, the amazing items only in forced raiding.

Gathering up the poor little bastards for the slaughter…

Gameplay Issues

There are currently a number of bugs and issues with OBT, which I’ve outlined below.

Enemy telegraph hitboxes can be very inaccurate (latency delayed), resulting in 1-shot deaths (especially with bosses). It gets worse in parties.

Chat is completely broken in the US (can’t use characters like +, -, (, ), ;). Additionally, the filter is far too aggressive, showing “Class” as “Cl***”.

Cannot re-enter limited daily dungeons (epics, vault, etc) after disconnect. This ensures numerous players lose access to important daily runs, especially with the terrible server hosting issues. Additionally, if players leave party, go AFK or disconnect in the middle of an epic run, the entire party loses the run.

Servers are packed with people who don’t speak the same language. This is a big localization mistake by Webzen, also showing they don’t have a clue about “The Americas” (which is filled with people from north, central and south america each region speaking a different language).

Legitimate player accounts who use tools like PingZapper to try and get around the terribly high pings due to bad hosting decisions made by Webzen are being blocked.

The Pet system is very confusing and poorly designed. It’s also nearly impossible to upgrade your pets without spending real money.

Webzen runs server maintenance at 11pm PST (which is prime time for many gamers in the US).

The Launcher does not remember username or password, and requires Captcha confirmation every time you log in now. Captcha can also pop up in the middle of gameplay (but I admit I haven’t seen this over the past week; it may have been removed).

Can’t right-click on a name and block spammers (the game forces you to manually enter a name like “dsadasjrioweord” into your block list). Also cannot right-click on guild member names and send tell.

Each character has its own friends list. This means when you create a new character, you no longer have access to your friends list. Friends should be account-wide.

Game is packed full of AFK folks while others sit in a queue to play.

Cosmetic purchases have a time limit which means you don’t buy them, you rent them. This is probably one of the dumbest marketing decisions I’ve ever seen, and I certainly won’t spend money on a system like this – ever.

Founder pack rewards (wings, mounts, pets) are usable only on one character. This is very misleading, and most people I know who purchased their founder packs regret their decision due to this limitation.

Many of these issues are unforgivable, obvious results of incompetence, poor planning, cultural disconnects, or simple laziness. It’s unfortunate that a game with such a great potential is plagued with so many issues that could easily be fixed and addressed.

Conclusion

While the closed beta for MuL was one of the best I’ve played, the number of enhancements made to the game over the past year doesn’t make up for the volume of problems that are currently being experienced in open beta. Make no mistake, the core feel of the game is very good; the graphics, combat, character progression, class skills, dailies, rifts and monsters — it all flows and comes together very well. The UI is smooth, the music is surprisingly good and the boss fights are interactive and fun but not overwhelming. Leveling is enjoyable, and the ability to lay out different skill setups (with F1/F2 page swapping) is also a very good thing. Traveling throughout the world is easy, and loot drops are balanced until end-game.

But Webzen began alienating their players with the founder’s packs (only allowing obscure 3rd party gateways that hardly anyone in America uses) and then making the cosmetics from those purchases (Mounts, Pets, etc) bound to a single character. The ensures a “founder” can only experience their benefits on one character, and if they want to build another character, it’ll be just like any other player. Bots and spammers were so rampant they had to shut down all trading, and that’s mixed with the fact Webzen put multiple cultures on the same server who cannot communicate with each other. So if you’re from Seattle and speak English and choose an Americas server, you’ll quickly find yourself buried in Portuguese. Pair that with broken systems like Chat, terrible hosting choices ensuring high ping rates, and bans of legitimate players because they use tools like PingZapper, and you have a complete mess on top of a good core game.

One of the finest ARPGs ever made, enhanced with the latest Ashes of Malmouth expansion. More akin to Diablo 2 style leveling and item farming than other ARPGs. A classic.

Content10

Mechanics9.5

Gameplay9.5

Technical8.5

Strengths

World & Environment

Multi-Class (Mastery) System

Complexity

Weaknesses

Overwhelming to new players

Devotions are unintuitive

Complexity

9.4

Final Rating

Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth Review Introduction

Grim Dawn has deserved a solid review for quite some time now, and the fact I would rather be playing the game than writing a review says quite a bit. The game has a truly unique background. I’ve been playing since Alpha. The history of the company and product is also quite interesting.

There is a Recommended Builds section at the end of this review for new players who are looking for detailed build guides to follow.

Grim Dawn is one of the finest ARPGs ever made, and the fact it was created by a team of roughly a dozen people is completely unprecedented. The recent release of the expansion Ashes of Malmouth (AoM) has greatly enhanced the game even further, ensuring the team at Crate Entertainment will continue to evolve the fantastic world of Cairn.

Before we dive into the game, I want to cover the history, not only of the game, but of the company and creator.

Arthur Bruno is the founder, also the creator of Titan Quest back in 2006 (9/10 rating on Steam and held as one of the best ARPGs next to Diablo 2). With only a handful of people, he licensed the Titan Quest engine in 2009 and began work on Grim Dawn – without any programmers! Focusing solely on content and mechanics, they were able to build the core of a new game that presented so well in 2012 they raised over over $500k (while only seeking $280k) on KickStarter. With the new capital, they were able to hire new staff members including programmers to make core adjustments to the game engine. Alpha began through the Steam early access system in May of 2013 (which I participated in). The first four classes were released in October of 2014 (Soldier, Demolitionist, Occultist and Nightblade). Chapter 3 was complete in February of 2015, and by December of 2015, Act 4 and the announcement the game, now feature complete, was made. Spending the next remaining months fixing bugs and making quality of life enhancements, they released the game in February, 2016. The story behind the creation of Grim Dawn is just as compelling as the game itself; very few companies are ever able to pull off what the team did at Crate under Arthur’s leadership. Congratulations to Crate on a job well done, and more importantly, the most efficient and quality work I’ve ever seen given the size of the team and scope of the game.

Content, Characters & Classes

The Story behind grim dawn is dark and gritty; in the world of Cairn, Mankind came into contact with extra-dimensional beings called Aethereals by opening portals with magic. These beings came through the portals and began to not only invade, but fuse with humans. However Humans also learned to harness the Aether “magic” in addition to their own; but total war was now taking place because Aetherials fused with so many humans and are bent on taking over the world. In addition to the Aethereals, we also have Chthonics (which are taken from Cthulhu Mythos); demon-like beings (and worshipers), also bent on taking over the world. It’s a royal mess, and it’s up to you to fight both of these sources of “evil”, and that is what the storyline is all about. It’s dark, well-written, and serves as great lore for those who are interested in following the storyline – but don’t worry, if you just want to kill and don’t care about the story, you can do that as well. Through Quests (defined below), players are able to make story decisions that can unlock additional content in each difficulty setting; but as one learns the game, they need to be careful because once certain decisions are made with a character in Ultimate difficulty, that’s the “final” setting a character is stuck with. An example of this is going hostile with a specific town/faction/NPC. Such an action can open up a dungeon, or alienate a vendor who sells powerful items.

The game has a total of 8 Masteries (or classes). Arcanist, Demolitionist, Nightblade, Occultist, Shaman, Soldier, Inquisitor (AoM) and Necromancer (AoM). You can either stick with one mastery or combine two masteries (which is what the majority of builds do). When you combine two masteries, you become a different “class title”. For example, and Shaman + Occultist is known as a Conjurer, and a Necromancer + Soldier is a Death Knight. This allows for numerous combinations, and within those combinations, a nearly unlimited variation of builds. From level 1-50 a player receives 3 points they can spend in each mastery (being able to select the 2nd mastery at level 10). The player can spend points in the core mastery (which unlocks skills) or put points into active/passive skills. Players can reset these skills within the game at the appropriate NPC, but a player cannot “spec out” of a chosen mastery, so a Conjurer can never be anything but a Conjurer, however the player could remove all points and completely redistribute them to create a new “type” of conjurer build. There is no “best build” in Grim Dawn. There are so many different variations of end-game (and leveling) builds that combined with legendary items, no one build “destroys the game”. Nearly all builds can be made viable with the right resists, gear, and play style. This is a key factor that shows what a great game (and how well balanced) Grim Dawn is. This system also endorses the creation of numerous alts to experience different skills and play styles. The complete Mastery overview can be found here.

Devotions are the secondary growth system within the game, awarding points that can be spent in a “constellation map” acquired by cleansing shrines (or through the Crucible) that are scattered throughout the world, or completing quests. A total of 55 points can be acquired and distributed. Devotions augment all aspects of a character: stats, resistances, damage, and most importantly, mastery skills. For example, a character can attach a skill to a Devotion “action” (like Twin Fangs) and that skill will now have life leech. While the devotion system is extensive, it is difficult to navigate and not very intuitive to new players. Once you get accustomed to it, great builds can be planned and executed, but the learning curve is a bit rough. Devotion points can be removed and respec’d if a player wants to try something new. A devotion tied to a skill also levels up as it is used. http://www.grimtools.com/calc/ is the “go to” website for builds and has a great search feature, allowing players to look up devotions that have specific properties (e.g. bleed).

Items serve as the foundation for character progress. Normal (White), Magical (Yellow), Rare (Green), Epic (Blue) and Legendary (Purple). There are also Empowered and Mythical versions of Epic and Legendary items, allowing for upgrades of earlier drops (which is a great design). The game currently (with AoM) has 917 legendary items (399 Armor, 310 Weapons, 172 Jewelry and 36 relics). This includes a total of 558 crafting blueprints (221 being legendary). One very interesting note is the best items in the game can often be green items; even better than legendaries – but only if the rolls are a solid match for a specific build. This adds another layer of variation to the game, and keeps players regularly looking at all drops from Green (rare) upward. For those who are interested, here’s an overview of farming Legendaries in Ultimate. A complete Item Database for Grim Dawn can be found here. It’s also important to note that Relics can only be crafted by a Blacksmith; they do not drop.

The game also has a built-in Loot Filter, which is awesome; so you can only show drops of a specific quality and higher. There are also numerous Item Sets available for Epic and Legenday items, and their synergy can define a build. Finding a certain Legenday item (or just 2 of them) can open the ability to make a kick-ass end-game build. Only Epic and Legendary items can be part of a set.

There are also Lore drops for NPCs and history of the factions and world. These are documents that award experience when used (read). When you find a lore drop, it counts for all difficulty levels and won’t drop again. Many lore drops come from book pedestals, bodies, monsters, or are just laying on the ground.

Inventory takes the traditional “space item size” ARPG standard and can expand by completing quests (for character). There is also a Stash that has two sections; character and shared. Additional stash tabs can be purchased for Iron (the in-game currency), and the Shared stash is the most useful since it allows you to place items in a location where other characters can use them from (including components). The game also has Item Sorting and Complete Components, which will auto-merge all components. These two features make a huge difference in managing inventory. All that’s missing is a search option (people use GD Stash to get around this, which is covered below under Mods). You can easily deposit or withdraw items to or from the stash by holding down shift and clicking on an item (while the stash is showing).

Time to build those factions!

Factions are critical in Grim Dawn because they unlock item augments, blueprints, Nemesis encounters and Bounties. Nemesis bosses can also drop warrants; these can be used by other character to increase infamy by 50%. There are currently 16 total factions with the AoM expansion, and each faction can either go positive (Friendly, Respected, Honored, Revered) or negative (Despised, Hated, Nemesis). The only reason to go negative with a faction (some of which you cannot avoid, such as Undead, Aetherials, etc) is to unlock Nemesis spawns, and believe me, some of the Nemesis spawns are monumentally difficult (often taking 5+ minutes to kill). Writs and Mandates are items that can be shared between characters that allow faction to be gained at a 50% or 100% bonus rate. These are acquired by high level characters purchasing them, placing them in the shared stash, and then having the low-level character use them (it’s a form of reward for players who create alts and want to gain access to faction items quicker with new character). Each faction specializes in different item sets, damage types and enhancements; some focus on melee, others on ranged or magic, and some on pet damage. Each faction quartermaster’s complete inventory can be viewed, so you can see what you can unlock in the future. Quartermasters are found in the towns and outposts scattered throughout the world. “Farming Faction” is a big part of the end-game since the revered augments can help define a build, especially when it comes to survival (resistances). The easiest faction to first achieve revered with is generally the Black Legion (Fort Ikon).

Bounties are mini-quests that become available when you reach honored status with a faction, and they are acquired at the related faction’s bounty table. Bounties often require you to kill bosses, but sometimes they’ll ask for legendary materials or other items to turn in. Each time you complete a bounty, you receive additional (and bonus) reputation with that faction. You can skip a bounty and see the next available one, but you cannot skip the second one; you must take it or restart the game session. Bounties are fun to pursue as you’re going through the world because you will often encounter your target as you’re progressing through the storyline. Farming bounties is also a good way to pursue faction points on the path to revered.

Quests are the foundation of progression, character growth (including faction, inventory space and more) and exploration for the game. While it’s possible to level up solely through the Crucible DLC (covered below), I believe it’s more enjoyable to play through the world and storyline. There are core “progression” quests which must be followed to open up progress throughout the world, and there are also numerous side-quests, some of which are hidden. Some quests have quite impactful results based on decision; a good example is the Barrowholm quest where you can either help the town or turn hostile (which removes the ability to do side quests within the town, but opens their mines). There is also a central storyline quest to choose one of two key factions; Kymon’s Chosen or Order of the Death’s Vigil. Here is a guide covering the differences between the two.

There are a total of 6 central Towns in the game that act as quest centers with services and portals. As the player adventures through the world, these towns are found and unlocked by fighting to secure the portal. The towns (in order of progress) are: Devil’s Crossing, Homestead, Fort Ikon, Coven’s Refuge (AoM), Malmouth Sewers (AoM), and finally the Steelcap District (AoM). There are also numerous Outposts (such as the Rover’s Camp in Old Arkovia, where quests and the rover faction vendor can be found).

The Crafting system is well-done and balanced. As it’s been mentioned, a player builds a “core account” while playing Grim Dawn, beyond just a single character. Blueprints are shared with all characters (once learned, they are available to all), and components, etc. can also be shared among all characters through the stash. Crafting allows the creation of relics, components, rare, epic and legendary items. Players can also dismantle (with dynamite) items to receive scrap (a key resource) and components. There are also blacksmiths located in the world that will craft random legendary items using rare materials (such as Tainted Brain Matter). The key materials in the game are: Scrap, Aether Crystal/Shared/Cluster, Ancient Heart, Blood of Ch’thon, Tainted Brain Matter, Manticore Eye, and Chthonic Seals of Binding. Dynamite is also a key resource, required for opening one-shot “locked” chests and dismantling items. Dynamite spawns at a number of static locations, allowing for players to farm it. Dynamite can also be crafted. Faction blacksmiths are also able to craft Green items with specific modifiers (for example, the Blacksmith at Devil’s Crossing crafts items with Pierce resistance, Armor and Physical damage, while the Blacksmith at Fort Ikon crafts items with Aether and Chaos resistance and health); you can see these modifiers by highlighting the icon to the left of the Combine (crafting) button. Most players dismantle duplicate legendaries for the chance at obtaining legendary crafting materials, which can be used to craft other legendary items.

Components and Augments are the bread and butter of refining a build and are applied to items (helmet, chest, sword, rings, etc.). With Components, a player can enhance resistances, damage, and stats. Augments, which are acquired from faction vendors, can be stacked on top of components to boost an item’s properties even more. Throwing in a few Antivenom Salves or Dense Fur components can fix a build that keeps dying to poison and freezing damage. Some components even provide “auras” of protection, such as Purified Salt (Aether resistance). Energy problems? Throw some Ectoplasm (found on ghosts) on your rings! The only way to remove a component is with the Inventor (salvager). Augments can be overwritten, components cannot. The rule of thumb is always pick up all components that drop and throw them in your shared stash. Don’t forget to auto-combine everything!

Grim Dawn has the most meticulously crafted Environments of any ARPG I’ve seen. The world is stunning and beautiful, and was crafted with a level of detail rarely seen in games. With day/night cycles, great depth (over and under crossways and the ability to see in the distance) and numerous variations of terrain ranging from farming fields to high-mountain passes, the underground/cave designs are fantastic. Even though the core world is Static (e.g. no random generation), certain corridors, doorways, and entrances to underground places can shift from game to game (adding a slight hint of variation each time the player runs through the world). There’s such a level of depth and “love” for the world design that players have no issue going through it again and again and again.

You can port any where, any time.

The World is huge. There is so much to see and explore. There are also numerous Hidden Areas that contain everything from stashes to shrines and unique bosses. Another nice feature is the ability to Rotate the Camera, allowing the player to change the 3rd person angle while they are adventuring. Destructibles are also littered throughout the world, sending debris flying into the air as combat breaks up stone, furniture and other nearby objects. Ragdoll Physics are also part of the game; it’s fantastic to see the bodies of your enemies go flying back or upwards. Ultimately, each area of the game is meticulously designed; the Plains of Strife is littered with mines and swarming with Aetherials while the Arkovian Undercity is crawling with undead. And for those of you who are fans of the Netflix series Stranger Things, the Chthonic Rifts are like the Upside Down. The complete Grim Dawn world map can be found here.

The game has a quite the variety of Enemies, ranging from giant spiders to little goblins, skeleton knights and mutant aether creatures. Some have ranged attacks, others cast magic, and some rush to pummel you. Enemies can be one of the following types: Aetherial, Arachnid, Beast, Beastkin, Chthonic, Eldritch, Human, Insectoid, Riftspawn or Undead. There are five difficulty levels of nasties: Common (White), Hero (Orange), Unique Bosses (Lavender), and Nemesis/Secret Bosses (Red). It is interesting to note that enemies in Grim Dawn are almost always higher level than the character. Some monsters will heal each other, so when you get to end-game and go after Nemesis and other bosses, it’s important to make sure “support” mobs are killed first. It’s also important to note Nemesis monsters are monumentally difficult, and unless your character is built to handle them, if you see one … run. But if you are able to kill them, their chests drop some of the best treasure in the game (including rare blueprints). Another thing I like about the game are the Hordes of enemies; it’s not uncommon to have 40-50 monsters barreling down on you from off-screen because you attacked one of their buddies. The higher the difficulty (covered below), the larger the hordes. It’s very easy to get overrun if the player is not prepared.

The world is also littered with NPCs; some in towns, and others hanging around (or imprisoned) in hostile areas. Some NPCs will join town or even modify the town based on completing their quests. As mentioned in the story section, how a player interacts with certain NPCs can shape the overall story-arc of the game in the selected difficulty. Don’t let the father burn his children in the house!

Playing any ARPG is all about the Treasure, and in this department, Grim Dawn does not disappoint; it can sometimes even be overwhelming if you don’t have the loot filter on. The game is packed full of bodies, chests and other items to open for loot. Pinata globes of treasure appear after killing bosses, and when you whack them they explode in juicy goodness. There are more than 30 Lootable Objects in the game including Altars, Weapons Racks and Transcendent Chests. There are numerous Breakables that can contain Iron (currency) and items, including Barrels, Scrap Piles and Urns (more than 15 different types). One-shot chests are also spread throughout the world. Most of these take a stick of dynamite to open and often contain legendary crafting materials and items; others are specific to bosses. There are also Exalted Stashes (Chests) which are spread throughout the world (usually spawning in the same “area”, so players can learn where to farm them). It’s always a good idea to make sure your character has dynamite on them since one-shot chests are often stumbled upon. Here’s the current one-shot chest list. There are also Monster Infrequent Items; these are rare drops that come from specific bosses that have a specific set of properties. A list of these items can be found here.

Challenge Dungeons provide some of the most difficult content in the game and are great for farming legendaries, crafting materials and blueprints. The current challenge dungeons are Steps of Torment (Undead), Port Valbury (Aetherials), and Bastion of Chaos (Chthonians). The new AoM dungeon is supposed to come over the next few weeks and is anticipated to be full of Beasts. When you die in a Challenge Dungeon, you lose access and must restart the game to try again.

The Crucible was released back in August of 2016 as the first DLC (Downloadable Content) for Grim Dawn. It allows a player to fight wave after wave of monsters to obtain levels, items and devotion points. Experienced players often use the Crucible to level up new characters to get their first few devotion points before starting the main campaign. Pohx made a video outlining this technique.

The Malmouth Expansion (released on October 11, 2017) enhanced the game greatly by raising the level cap from 85 to 100, adding two new masteries (Inquisitor and Necromancer), tons of new content, four new factions, 14 new constellations and many new epic and legendary items. The expansion also added new Nemesis and Superbosses, expanded stash and the ability to reset attributes and mastery points. As far as the content goes, exploring Ugdenbog and taking over the city of Malmouth is great fun as you fight with the resistance to make headway and slowly reclaim the city. They also made QoL (Quality of Life) changes such as allowing epic crafting materials (Tainted Brain Matter), etc. to be shared between characters.

Another thing that makes Grim Dawn a great game is the ability to create Mods, of which there are many. Some adjust the entire game (adding new classes and skills) while others just add tools to help manage things like Inventory. At this time there are 32 mods, with the top 3 being GD Stash (expands your stash size, allows for searching, etc. Extremely useful), FasterLoot (increases drop rate of epics and legendaries), and Cataclysm (adds 8 new classes, custom items, game changes, etc.). It’s also important to mention the DAIL mod, which was the most popular prior to the expansion. It provides 30 masteries, and a plethora of features so lengthy I can’t list them here. DAIL is currently on hold as the creators adjust it for the expansion, but when it releases, I’m sure it’ll return as the #1 mod. The Grim Dawn Nexus is the place to get mods.

While the Devotion system is very powerful, it is difficult for new players to navigate and understand.

Balance & Gameplay

Grim Dawn has some of the best responsive Combat seen in an ARPG. Real physics allow projectiles to intercept thrown items, the radius and visuals of AoE attacks are visually accurate, and monsters can quickly box you in and block you from moving. Combat can be quick, fierce, and deadly. It’s also smooth as silk, allowing for quick action and reaction. Players can also swap weapons at any time (allowing for the switch between ranged and melee). I also think Grim Dawn has the best “pet builds” of any ARPG; you can have a legion of 15+ pets out at once, and the AI is quite well-done (compared to other games). So if you do like controlling a horde of undead or crazed woodland creatures, this is definitely the game for you. But if you also like to shoot a gun that pierces 20+ enemies in a row (causing them to explode like blood sausage), spread bloody disease thoughout the screen and watch your targets run around in writhing confusion, or flash freeze large groups … well, there are many ways to dispose of your enemies, and all of them are fun.

Characters Level as they gain experience from killing monsters, completing quests and reading lore. One can also level up solely through the Crucible. The maximum level with the AoM expansion is now 100, and the general level of moving from one difficulty to another is 48 (Elite) and 80 (Ultimate). This is taking into account the expansion and completing its content. It’s of interest to note the game dynamically scales the level of the monsters based on your character level and selected difficulty. If you are level 84 when you reach the Warden in Ultimate, he will be level 89, but if you hit the Warden at level 100, he will be level 105. This mechanic ensures the game content will be as challenging as possible, and it’s a solid design that works well. For experienced players, it’s possible to reach level 50 in just two hours. Here’s one example with a Necromancer build. A character receives 3 points to spend from 2-50, 2 points from 51-90 and then only 1 point from 91-100.

The game keeps the Character Stats simple: Physique (Health), Cunning (Bonus Physical, Pierce and Duration Damage) and Spirit (Bonus Magical and Duration Damage, Bonus Energy and Regen). Underneath these three core values, there is a very in-depth set of statistics, derived damage variables and many other key values that define a character. Resistances, Attacks Per Second, Class Bonuses, Damage Bonuses, Pet Bonuses, Retaliation Damage, Chance to Block, and even Movement Speed are just some examples. One can drill down into these values on the right side of the character sheet (there are 3 pages total).

The game has a health regeneration system called Constitution. This mechanic kicks in after you haven’t taken damage for a period of time; however if you run out of constitution, you cannot regenerate. Constitution can be reclaimed by gaining a level, picking up Vital Essence (33%) or Food Rations (75%), looting Untouched Meal, or speaking with the cook in Devil’s Crossing or Homestead (once per game session). Health and Energy Regeneration can be activated by using Tonics of Mending (35% instant recovery and 40% over a few seconds), or Elixirs of Spirit (33% + 500 instantly). Health potions are on a 8 second cooldown and energy potions are on a 30 second cooldown.

DoTs and Auras are another key part of the game. and greatly augment the overall experience. DoTs cause a specific type of damage (e.g. Poison or Acid) over time while Auras are almost always defensive (but many provide offensive enhancements). There are also Exclusive auras; only one of which can be toggled at a time. Each Mastery has at least one Aura, usually unlocked after putting 50 points into the core build. Curses are a critical part of the game as well, the most common being Curse of Frailty, which lowers movement speed and resistances.

Most Damage Types in Grim Dawn have a primary and secondary support duration. For example if you have Fire Damage, it can cause Burn damage (a DoT). The primary damage types with support are: Physical (Internal Trauma), Fire (Burn), Cold (Frostburn), Lightning (Electrocute), Acid (Poison), and Vitality (Vitality Decay). There is also Pierce, Aether, and Chaos, but they are only primary and have no DoT support. Bleeding is the only damage type that’s independent of all base damage types. A comprehensive review of Damage Types can be found here.

There are 10 core Resistances in the game: Elemental (Fire, Cold, Lightning), Poison & Acid, Vitality, Pierce, Bleeding, Aether, and Chaos. Resistance are key to survival, especially in Elite and Ultimate difficulties. Characters often have to sacrifice damage for resists as they are leveling up, especially in AoE-intensive areas like the AoM expansion content (which will eat you alive if you don’t have good poison/aether resists). There are other resistances (such as Physical, Life Leech, Trap, etc. but they are considered secondary. Item augments sold by faction vendors are a must for end-game resistances. A great overview of components and their associated resistances can be found here, and a great overview of augments can be found here (note this hasn’t been updated for AoM as of yet). Characters can also craft potions that provide temporary (30, 450 or 900 sec) resistances. These can be very useful for fighting bosses that do a specific type of damage the character may not have max resists for.

The Learning Curve of Grim Dawn is gradual, but can get tough later on; while the beginning of the game easily allows any player to dive in and have fun, things start getting difficult as one approaches the Warden (for new players) and resistances become a necessity. Many new players on Reddit constantly post (for example) “I’m level 50 and die to everything”, only to find out they chose a poor combination of skills, have no regen/leech, or no resistances. Many builds also require the use of one skillset build to level to ~50-60 before switching to an “end-game build” (one example is leveling a Ranged Tactician; most players level as Soldier using Blade Arc as their main attack – until they switch to ranged Cadence in the 60’s). Overall, there is a lot to learn, but for those who put the time, energy and effort into trying to master Grim Dawn, the rewards can be great.

Pets are a big part of the game for many of the builds, allowing the character to focus solely on healing their buddies as they run around and murder everything. There are also Totems (from the Shaman mastery), which can do solid end-game damage. Conjurer (Shaman + Occultist) and Cabalist (Necromancer + Shaman) are currently the strongest pet builds in the game (Conjurer is held as a bit more safe and better for nemesis farming due to survivability).

Following the traditional model, the game features three Difficulty levels: Normal (Veteran), Elite and Ultimate. When you complete the first storyline (non-AoM), the next difficulty level opens up (allowing a character to move into the next difficulty without running the expansion). Elite has a 25% resistance penalty, and Ultimate has a 50% resistance penalty. Not only do monsters get tougher and the resistances lower with each difficulty, the size of the “packs” increases as well. If you think you’ve been swarmed in Normal (Veteran) just wait until you see the number of nasties in Ultimate. There are also reasons to go back to a previous difficulty; sometimes because it’s better for farming and survivability (Elite vs. Ultimate for example), or to complete a quest that wasn’t available before (such as the Mogdrogan’s Shrine quest). In my opinion the game doesn’t really show everything it has to offer until Ultimate, so make sure you get there! The game also has a Hardcore option for those who want the extra challenge. When the character dies, that’s it.

The Death Penalty is very minor when compared to other games. When you die, a “grave marker” appears, and if you are able to run back and get that marker, you recover a percentage of the lost experience from death (in Normal difficulty, you recover 100% of it). If you die in a Challenge Dungeon, you are unable to retrieve your marker. Once a character reaches level 100, there is no penalty to dying anymore, and a character cannot lose a level from dying.

Players can open a Riftgate most anywhere at any time, allowing for quick and efficient Travel throughout the world. There are also Waypoints that are discovered as the character explores the world. It often wise to drop a riftgate right before a boss fight, so if you die, you can just port back to your location rather than having to run from the last waypoint. The world Map is easy to navigate, showing every waypoint that has been secured as well as shrines that have been discovered (and cleansed).

When you purchase the game through Steam, you are able to unlock 124 Achievements. While they don’t really award anything, they are fun to see pop up. Players can also look at these achievements and see how many other players have unlocked them. To give people an idea of how difficult end-game is, as of this time, no player has completed the expansion final quests in Ultimate Hardcore mode.

Character Progression is very well done and balanced, one key reason being the dynamically adjusting level system associated with monsters. A character can easily reach level 100 simply by running each world quest line (all the way to the end, including the expansion) through all three difficulties. Devotion points are easily acquired through shrines, and skill points put in the right place can greatly enhance damage actions, allowing for quick and efficient killing of targets. The game gets difficult in Elite and very difficult in Ultimate; but the progression feels right.

The End-game of Grim Dawn is all about farming (Bosses for Legendaries and Blueprints), hunting Nemesis, running Dungeons (including Challenge Dungeons), and gaining faction to obtain access to the best items (and blueprints) a faction vendor has to offer. Hunting for specific Legendary items, Monster Infrequents, Blueprints, gathering materials, and running the end-game “dungeons” on Ultimate difficulty is guaranteed to keep players busy for quite some time.

The Replayability of Grim Dawn is solid. One would think a static world would be too repetitive, but the zones are so large and the minor differences each time you run through them make for great incentive to create multiple characters and run through the game world again and again. Add the numerous (and nearly unlimited) differences in builds and you have a great game that has nearly endless longevity and replayability. I’m sure there are some players out there who have found every legendary and blueprint in the game, but the massive majority of players (even those who play 4+ hours a day) always have something to work towards. I’ve played since release, and I’m still finding (and searching for) blueprints and specific legendary items.

Adventure time in Ugdenbog!

Systems & Technical

Given the size of the team at Crate, the Graphics of Grim Dawn are top notch. The lighting, water, shadows, models, terrain, and particles; all of it synergizes fantastically within the game. There are Performance issues relative to frame rate, mainly during crazy combat with a ton of monsters and particles. I run a 1080GTX on maximum settings and often drop below 30FPS during such combat.

The Sound & Music are simple yet defining. No other game quite sounds like Grim Dawn. Passive nostalgic dirty electric guitar music softly plays while strange environmental Sound FX immerse the player in this dark, demon-infested world.

Grim Dawn supports Multiplayer through individual hosting. It’s very well done (despite not having a chat lobby) and smooth (even with higher pings). The player can browse internet games or play on a LAN. Internet hosted games can be locked with a password to only allow friends. At the time of writing this review, roughly 600 games and 830 players are online; while most of the hosted servers are protected, there are a number of “public” games a player can join. Up to 4 players can join the same game, and the strength and health of the monsters scales based on the number of players; but so does the loot. Many more legendaries drop with 4 players than they do in single player, so many people team up with their friends to run the dungeons and share the legendaries that drop based upon matching builds. There is the option to enable PvP (for those who want to have some fun). Loot can be set to free for all or individual, and experience is shared between players as long as they are in the same area and party. Chat is available in a multiplayer game (by pressing T), both in party form and player tells. Players can also Trade Items with each other by hosting a multiplayer game. For those who want to find specific items, or ask other players to craft relics one may not have access to, the Steam Trading Forum is the place to go. But the truth is Grim Down is mainly a Single Player game for most. It’s nice to be able to hit the space bar at any time to pause the game in order to answer the phone or make a cup of coffee.

When it comes to Bugs, until the AoM release, I encountered perhaps 1-2 crashes over a period of years. The game’s stability was fantastic – however it appears the expansion has caused some problems and I have had numerous crashes; often one per day. There is also a serious issue where Grim Dawn interferes with other applications that are running (it did not do this prior to AoM). I have reported this (as have other players) and hope they are able to resolve these issues soon.

On average, the team at Crate releases Patches every 6-8 weeks unless there’s a reason to post a quick hotfix (to fix a broken mechanic, etc.).

Gameplay Issues

There are a number of issues with the game that, if addressed, could greatly improve the quality of life (QoL) for all players. Below is a list:

When you have a large number of pets (9+) they often “lag” behind and pop as they try to follow you.

Many areas don’t have “return portals” to take you back to the beginning. The Black Sepulcher is a perfect example, forcing the player to either run all the way back or port to the last waypoint.

Even with the loot filter on, the label system often results in the player clicking on other items they didn’t want to pick up (usually yellows).

Granted the recent crashes are rare (only once every day or two), they need to be fixed. The FPS performance issues are also a problem. Even on a 1080GTX 4.6 GHz M.2 SSD fresh install system, my frame rate regularly drops below 30FPS during combat (2K 144Hz).

While Grim Dawn is fantastic, addressing the above issues would make a big difference for all players.

Nothing like the demonic glow and darkness of a Chthonic Rift to brighten your day! … wait … what was that sound?

Recommended Enhancements

What changes could make a big difference in the future for Grim Dawn? Below are a few ideas.

Players need a custom Sound FX (or some other notification) when a legendary item drops since they can drop off-screen.

With over 900 legendary items in the game (not even counting Epics), the shared stash is still far too small; it really needs to be 2x – 4x bigger (even after the recent expansion release).

The Stash desperately needs a Search feature (to find any search text on an item; that way players can scan names, modifiers, etc). Path of Exile does this fantastically.

Blueprints should be their own unique color so they are easier to pick out of item stacks.

Once you hit 100 and get all of your devotions, the only progress is really with Items and Faction. Some sort of post level 100 Alternate Advancement System for a character would be very awesome.

The game world is so huge, we really need the ability to mark our maps. This would add an extra depth level of the game, enticing players to explore every corner of the world and annotating each area.

A Multiplayer chat lobby (like old-school Battle.net for Diablo 2) would be fantastic for bringing players together to form parties. A leaderboard would also be a great addition.

Once the new AoM dungeon comes out (which should be over the next few weeks), the team at Crate is going to start working on whatever the next major release is (if they haven’t started already). I hope they consider adding some of the above features!

Recommended Builds

Having played Grim Dawn since Alpha, I wanted to list what I consider to be the top builds that are fun to level and fully playable to end-game. As mentioned above, most any build can play the game in full, but the below guides provide detailed steps for new players to follow so they can enjoy the process of not only leveling, but have direction on the best way to craft their character during the process.

Each of these builds is solid for fun gameplay all the way to 100. I have played every build listed above (including some by Autentist) except the Meteor Sorcerer, which has been recommended by many players.

Conclusion

Grim Dawn is a complex, beautiful and immersive game of great depth, challenge, fun, and replayability. Players can put thousands of hours into this masterpiece and enjoy every moment. That really says a lot about what the game has to offer. The key is in trying new builds and farming legendary gear to build new characters that can pursue and take on the most difficult end-game challenges and content.

If you haven’t done it already already, get this game. There are some people who have only played Grim Dawn for a few hours and just “didn’t get into it”. For some, it’s just too complex, and for others it’s just not their “style”. However, I have yet to meet a player that has really played Grim Dawn (40+ hours) represent any form of regret or dislike for the game. Everyone who gives this game a chance and really plays it absolutely loves it. But it’s so large, complex and in-depth that in order to really get a taste of what the game has to offer, the player needs to get their character(s) into Ultimate, which is the “real” game. Normal and Elite are only there to prepare a player for the end-game challenges that Grim Dawn has to offer.

Here’s to Crate continuing to evolve this fantastic game, which is truly a work of art.